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Money,
money, money…
must be funny…
MANY MOONS AGO, I worked on a magazine
and was given the challenge of trying to include
as many song titles in headlines as possible.
It’s amazing how inventive you can be with a
little help from Google. If I remember rightly,
‘Art for Art’s Sake’ (10CC), ‘Better the Devil
You Know’ (Kylie Minogue) and ‘Love on the
Rocks’ (Neil Diamond) were among the tunes
that all made it into print.
Those of you of a certain age will likely
recognise the above headline as a lyric from
an Abba song. It seems particularly appropriate
for this issue – our annual wealth edition –
because we talk a lot about money. But if you
know the song, you probably automatically
sang the next line: ‘in a rich man’s world’ –
and never a truer line has been written.
The fact that women are still fighting for
gender parity in the workplace – be that in a
boardroom or in Hollywood – is an indication
of how far they have to go in general wealth
terms. While putting together this magazine,
it became increasingly apparent that when
discussing wealthy individuals, the vast
majority are men.
A quick look at the richest people in the
world for our feature on page 62 proves the
point. There are no women in the top 10 –
and precious few in the top 50. It seems that
we haven’t come all that far since Abba first
released ‘Money, Money, Money’ in 1976.
But as it always has been, so it hopefully
won’t be in the future – with female
entrepreneurs markedly on the rise around
the world. While the story may not be
massively different in one year’s time,
hopefully we won’t have to wait another
40-plus years for the picture to have shifted.
All of this said, the reality is that global
wealth has changed considerably in many other
areas and continues to evolve. And one place
where change is most noticeable is in where
wealth is being generated.
For decades, indeed centuries, most of the
world’s wealthy individuals have come from
developed Western countries – namely in North
America and Europe. But it’s arguable that
much of the growth in those regions has
now already happened.
While it might be easy to draw conclusions

www.blglobal.co.uk

from the media that most of the new
wealth might be coming from Russia and
the Middle East, those regions are actually
far behind Asia, which has seen remarkable
growth in the number of ultra-high-networth individuals in recent years.
If predictions from some quarters are
anywhere near correct, wealth in Asia may
well overtake all other areas in a mere 10
years’ time. This is something we explore in
our feature on page 46.
This changing global wealth demographic
has a direct impact on business in the
Channel Islands. For years, the finance
industries in both Guernsey and Jersey have
recognised that they have to cast their nets
much wider than their traditional UK and
European markets. It’s unsurprising, then,
that both Jersey Finance and Guernsey
Finance have established presences in the
Far East and Middle East.
But as any practitioner will admit, gaining
a foothold in a region is very much a long
game. Not only are the Channel Islands up
against ‘local’ jurisdictions, such as Hong
Kong, Singapore and Mauritius – breaking
in also requires sensitivity around cultural
issues. While both Guernsey and Jersey have
introduced products such as Foundations in
order to increase their appeal, it’s essential
not to view continents such as Asia as one
homogenous mass.
As we discovered in our feature on page
32, which focuses specifically on business
in Asia, each of the region’s composite
countries is very distinct, with its own
personality, which creates a different range of
challenges and opportunities for any offshore
jurisdiction looking to make headway with a
wealth offering.
Naturally, as this is our wealth edition,
we also look at properties around the world
that are out of the reach of us mere mortals.
And we also gawp in admiration at the
totally bonkers dream projects that some
of the world’s richest people – step forward
Elon Musk – get off the ground.
Enjoy your read! n

The fact that
women are
still fighting
for gender
parity in the
workplace is
an indication
of how far
they have
to go in general
wealth terms

Nick Kirby, Editor-in-Chief, Businesslife

may/june 2018 3

Xxxxx

Am I ready to pass on
what I treasure most?
Passing on your values is as important as
passing on your wealth.
For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone.
Together we can find an answer.
Michael Clarke, Head of Private Clients
UBS AG, Jersey Branch
1, IFC
St Helier, Jersey
JE2 3BX
01534 701148
michael.clarke@ubs.com

The value of investments can fall as well as rise.
You may not get back the amount originally invested.

he Guernsey Financial Services
Commission has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) with the Bank of England.
The new agreement is a reaffirmation
of a long-held relationship between
Guernsey’s financial regulator and the
Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority
(PRA), which dates back to the PRA’s
predecessor, the Financial Services
Authority.
Through the MoU, both parties will be
able to share confidential information
about regulated entities and formally
co-operate on other supervision activities.
The PRA is a part of the Bank of
England and is responsible for the
prudential regulation and supervision of

Pictured: Sam Woods (left)
and William Mason
banks, insurers and major investment firms,
regulating some 1,700 financial firms.
The agreement was signed by William
Mason, Director-General at the GFSC, and
Sam Woods, Deputy Governor at the Bank
of England for Prudential Regulation and
Chief Executive Officer of the PRA.

Private Investment
Fund updated

58

C

hanges are being made to Guernsey’s Private Investment Fund
(PIF) regime following a one-year review by the Guernsey
Financial Services Commission (GFSC). The move is expected
to improve take-up of the product, launched in November 2016.
The GFSC has amended the PIF rules and guidance to remove
the need for a licensed investment manager to warrant an
investor’s ability to sustain financial loss. The warranty has been
replaced with a declaration, which places a lesser burden on the
licensed manager.
The declaration may be satisfied in a number of ways, including
the investor having a genuine close relationship with the promoter
and manager through previous deals.
The PIF recognises close and long-standing links between fund
managers and investors. Over the past 15 months, 13 such funds
have been launched by domestic and international managers of
alternative assets including private equity and real estate. The PIF
can be closed- or open-ended and contain no more than 50 legal
or natural persons holding an economic interest, except where
an appropriate agent is acting for a wider group of stakeholders.
There is no restriction on the number of investors to whom the
PIF might be marketed – a feature not available under comparable
regimes in other jurisdictions. n

“There is a very productive and
good relationship between the GFSC
and the PRA, and we see this
confirmation as good news for the
bailiwick, demonstrating that we are
regarded as credible operators by our
main counterparties,” said Mason. n

Burford plans to
launch Guernsey
insurance business

U

S litigation finance firm Burford Capital has applied for a
licence to establish an insurance business in Guernsey,
according to a report by CityAM. The new business, which
is reported to be awaiting final licensing by the Guernsey
Financial Services Commission, will offer insurance cover for
clients involved in litigation who may face significant costs
orders in the event of losing a case.
Burford previously offered ‘adverse costs’ insurance via an
agency relationship with MunichRe. However, most of these
were for less than £3 million and aimed at the mid-market.
The new business is aimed at more complex litigation and
arbitration cases.
Burford London Managing Director Craig Arnott said:
“This fills a hole in the market. Adverse cost insurance wasn’t
available for many of the matters we dealt with – big, chunky
commercial, competition and arbitration matters.”
Arnott said Burford’s clients needed cover ranging from £15
million to £25 million. He anticipated the new insurance
business would initially write up to 20 policies a year, focusing
on cases for which Burford had already provided funding. n

Same gender, same rights
Christopher Austin, Senior Associate at Parslows, explores some of the effects of extending
the right to marriage in Jersey to same-sex couples
ON 1 FEBRUARY this year, the States of
Jersey voted in favour of the Marriage
and Civil Status (Amendment No. 4)
(Jersey) Law 201-. The new marriage law
will, for the first time, allow same-sex
couples to get married in Jersey.
The approval of the new law followed
a period during which a number of its
provisions were hotly debated by the
religious community in Jersey. These
included the question of whether it should
contain a so-called ‘tolerance clause’
permitting individual business owners of
religious conviction, who provide goods
and services for weddings and associated
celebrations, to discriminate against samesex couples wishing to marry in Jersey. The
clause was eventually rejected by the States.
The new marriage law now awaits royal
assent in the Privy Council. The Jersey
government has said the law is expected to
come into force ‘in a number of months’.
At present, same-sex couples can
already enter into a civil partnership under
the provisions of the Civil Partnership
(Jersey) Law 2012 – this permits same-sex
couples to enter into a legally recognised
relationship, which is only terminated by
death, dissolution or annulment.
It’s appropriate to mention at this point
that the new marriage law will provide
for a civil partnership to be converted
into a marriage, and it contains provisions
relating to the conversion application
process, and the restrictions on conversion.
This new marriage law, once it comes
into force, represents a further expansion
of a series of new ‘anti-discrimination’
legislation passed in recent years.
Arguably the main effect of that
legislation has been most visible in the
context of employment law. Those changes
were heralded by the Discrimination
(Jersey) Law 2013 coming into force on
1 September 2014, which introduced a
number of protected characteristics under
the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003,
making it unlawful to discriminate against
people in a variety of specified situations,
including employment, on the basis of race.
This was then followed in relatively

short order (judged by the standard
of the speed with which legislation is
generally passed) by the Discrimination
(Sex and Related Characteristics) (Jersey)
Regulations 2015 and the Discrimination
(Age) (Jersey) Regulations 2016.

areas, in Jersey. In circumstances where
such discrimination is alleged,
a complaint can already be made to the
Jersey Employment and Discrimination
Tribunal, which has the power to make
orders to address the discrimination,
including the award of damages, if it
finds that discrimination has occurred.
There will be effects on other areas
of legislation in Jersey in order to take
account of the changes introduced by the
new marriage law. This includes changes
to the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961 to
facilitate the taxation of same-sex married
couples so that they’re taxed on the same
basis as other married couples.
Same-sex married couples will be entitled
to the same reliefs and allowances as
different-sex married couples. Under the
current legislation, for different-sex married
couples there's one taxpayer: the husband.
For same-sex married couples, the taxpayer
will be the eldest spouse.
It’s also intended that the Matrimonial
Causes (Jersey) Law 1949 will be subject
to complete review and amendment during
2018/19 in order to allow for divorce
among same-sex couples.
For example, it’s recognised that the
amendments brought forward don’t
address the problems associated with
adultery as grounds for divorce, or refusal
to consummate as a ground for nullity.
The Gender Recognition (Jersey) Law
2010 will also be amended to provide for
the introduction of same-sex marriage.
It’s also anticipated that further
legislative amendments will be required in
order to enhance provisions for same-sex
parents regarding the extension of parental
responsibility, step-parenting agreements,
and parental leave for surrogate parents.
Steps in that regard have already been
taken, by way of new family-friendly
employment rights legislation brought
forward by the Social Security Minister.
Jersey is, accordingly, at an exciting
stage of its legislative journey to break
down more of the remaining barriers to
achieving equality between different-sex
and same-sex couples. n

7 News

43 wealthy priorities

61 world’s wealthiest

A round-up of the
latest Channel Island
business news

It’s hard to believe that
high-net-worth people
have worries like
the rest of us – but
apparently they do

Is the list of the world’s
richest people being
taken over by a bunch of
tech geeks? And where
are the women?

46 wealth hotspots

64 prime property

As growth in wealth in
Western countries slows
down, it’s in the East
where the real action
is taking place

Looking for somewhere
swanky to set up home?
It seems that London
and New York remain
top of the pile

53 ESG investing

68 dream projects

The need for people to
invest where it makes a
difference is driving
growth in the responsible
investing sector

Boys and their toys!
How billionaires invest
in fantasy projects that
might actually benefit
the world

58 HNW LENDING

technology
73 Biometrics

The Agenda

From face recognition
and palm vein scanning
to the more bleeding edge
of tech, biometrics are
becoming ubiquitous

Our lifestyle section
goes seriously highend – be prepared
to take out a second
mortgage!

Businesslife is published six
times a year by Chameleon Group
+44 1534 615886
www.blglobal.co.uk

www.blglobal.co.uk

Recent key appointments
for firms in Guernsey
and Jersey

24 Interview
Lisa Springate, Head
of Technical at Jersey
Finance, gives her take on
the financial state of play

wealth
32 ASIAn clients
The world’s largest
region is home to a
diverse and booming
private client base

38 US private wealth
The Channel Islands are
attracting increased work
from US clients – even if
they live elsewhere

If what we’ve found out
is true, high-net-worth
individuals go to lenders
just as often as Joe
Public, although not
the ‘payday’ variety

WORKPLACE IMPACT
In the context of this legislation, the new
marriage law must be seen as part of an
ongoing initiative by the States of Jersey
to reduce the areas of discrimination that
are permissible in the island. It will also
bring Jersey’s legislation into line with
other countries both in Europe, including
the UK, and further afield.
But what will be the effect of the new
marriage law on employers and employees
in Jersey? Will it have a radical impact
on the way in which employers must
treat their employees and, if so, what
will those effects be?
The answer to those questions is
perhaps less dramatic than might
at first be thought. This is because
the Discrimination (Sex and Related
Characteristics) (Jersey) Regulations 2015
already make discrimination on grounds
of sexual orientation illegal in the context
of employment, and certain other specified

18 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

18 bl Jersey
Same-sex marriage
and a review of
business and finance
news stories

Freelance writer Tom
casts his eyes stateside
to see exactly what type
of wealth business the
Channel Islands are
doing on the other side
of the Atlantic – only to
discover he needs to look
even further afield.

KIRSTEN MOREL

Going in the opposite
direction, Businesslife
regular Kirsten looks
towards the biggest
global region, Asia, and
finds a continent into
which Guernsey and
Jersey have made
significant strides.

DAVE WALLER

Business writer Dave
delves into the rarefied
world of high-net-worth
lending. It seems even
the richest of people
borrow money every
now and again – and
the figures are quite
eye-watering.

RICHARD WILLSHER

It’s wealth and more
wealth for investment
writer Richard, as he
examines where in the
world you can find the
largest number of
wealthy individuals and
then sees who makes the
world’s top 10 richest.

MAY/JUNE 2018 5

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JTC lists on LSE main market
JERSEY-HEADQUARTERED JTC GROUP
was admitted to the London Stock
Exchange on 19 March with a market
capitalisation of £310 million.
JTC has a 30-year track record in
providing services for international
private and institutional clients, and had
experienced significant growth prior to
listing through organic growth, mergers
and acquisitions. The firm now has a
presence in 17 jurisdictions in Africa,
the Americas, Asia Pacific, the UK, the
Caribbean and Europe.
This latest milestone in JTC’s history
represents a move away from being a
private equity-backed company, having
received investment from CBPE Capital
in 2012. CBPE has relinquished its
shares as part of the IPO.
JTC says its commitment to shared

ownership, where employees hold an
interest in the firm and benefit from its
performance, will be maintained, with
its Employee Benefit Trust and Equity
For All schemes evolving in line with
JTC’s new public company structure.
CEO Nigel Le Quesne said: “This is
a fantastic opportunity for JTC. Having
grown the business over the last 30
years into a leader in the administration
services market for funds, corporate and
private clients, this is the next logical
step in our strategy and will create a
long-term capital base for the business.
“The IPO will provide us with access
to the capital markets, as we look
to deliver growth, both organically
and through our targeted acquisition
strategy in a sector which we view as
ripe for consolidation.” n

Standard Bank reports strong 2017
STANDARD BANK WEALTH International, based in Jersey and with offices in the Isle
of Man and Mauritius, has announced a positive set of results for 2017. Earnings
stood at £36.8 million for the full year, a 32 per cent increase on the previous
year. The business achieved a return on equity of 16.6 per cent, with a 6.2 per
cent increase in deposits to £5.1bn, and a 17 per cent increase in assets under
management to £2.6bn at 31 December 2017.
The firm is 100 per cent owned by Standard Bank Group, the largest bank in
Africa by assets. Its positive results mirrored strong results at group level.
Jonathan Peake, Chief Financial Officer of Standard Bank Wealth International,
said: “2017 has been another strong year… All areas of the business performed
well despite challenging economic conditions in our core African markets.” n

www.blglobal.co.uk

JERSEY EXPERIENCED AN 86 per
cent rise in M&A deal value in 2017,
while Guernsey recorded a 40 per cent
increase, in a year in which deal activity
rose across the offshore region as a
whole, according to Appleby.
In the latest edition of the law firm’s
Offshore-i report, examining M&A
activity in the major offshore financial
centres, Jersey recorded 129 deals
during 2017, representing $19.4bn in
value, and was home to three of the
10 largest deals recorded offshore.
Guernsey, meanwhile, recorded a
total of 157 deals, representing $6.8bn
in value. In both cases, while value
was up, the number of deals decreased
compared with the previous year.
Across offshore jurisdictions, there
were 2,771 deals targeting offshore
companies in 2017, with a total value
of $227bn, the report found. This was
an increase on 2016, when 2,735 deals
were recorded at a value of $219bn.
“In the face of the substantial
geopolitical uncertainty which
overshadowed 2017, the offshore
region’s positive performance is all
the more remarkable,” said Cameron
Adderley, Partner and Global Head of
Corporate at Appleby.
“These deals were led prominently
by acquisitions, although a number of
companies also chose to add additional
financing firepower by issuing new
stocks and bonds to eager investors.”
Each deal in the offshore top 10 in
2017 was worth well over $2bn, the
largest being the $6.8bn purchase of all
the issued shares of Belle International,
a Cayman Islands-incorporated
footwear manufacturer listed on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The Appleby report also found that
2017 was the busiest year on record for
offshore IPOs. Well over 300 IPOs were
reported across the offshore region in
2017, making it by far the busiest year
on record. n

Treasurers
Association
names
inaugural
officers
THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Treasurers
Association (CITA) has appointed its
first officers and adopted its constitution
following its first general meeting.
The association, which was founded
earlier this year, aims to bring together
companies and individuals involved in
treasury functions such as managing
or advising clients on cash matters or
safeguarding client money.
The new officers include:
● President – Jeremiah O’Keeffe, CEO,
JCAP Treasury Services
● Vice President – Niall Husbands,
Director, Intertrust
● Treasurer – Jamie McIntosh, Head of
Treasury Services, Link Asset Services.
The organisation’s initial areas of focus
include the impact of EU Directives on
the Channel Islands, the implementation
of Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
ring-fencing rules for UK banks, and the
risk appetite of local banks.
The CITA will also be responsible
for liaising with regulators, public
authorities and other related professional
organisations within the islands.
The group has established a LinkedIn
page, which will allow members to
share information and discuss industry
developments. Anyone interested in
becoming a member should contact
jeremiah.okeeffe@jcap.co.uk n

8 MAY/june 2018

Bedell Cristin has advised the Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority on all
Jersey law matters in relation to the
circa £300 million sale of Regent
Quarter in London’s King’s Cross to
Hong Kong-based Nan Fung Group.
The property comprises 250,000
square feet across 30 buildings,
including nearly 200,000 square feet
of offices, historic warehouses and
retail space, adjacent to King’s Cross
Station. The Bedell Cristin team
was led by Partner Tom Davies
and Associate Charlotte Bascombe
on the Jersey law aspects, with
Associate Louise Hassell advising
in respect of BVI law.
Carey Olsen has advised AX1 on the
initial coin offering (ICO) of the AX1
Token. The ICO proceeds will be
invested by AX1’s subsidiary into a
cryptocurrency mining operation in
the UK. Partner Chris Griffin led the
Carey Olsen team advising AX1,
assisted by Associate Joseph
Barker-Willis. The law firm worked
with the Jersey Financial Services
Commission to shepherd the ICO
through regulatory approval.
Carey Olsen’s corporate team in
Guernsey has advised Blue Water
Energy (BWE) on its investment in
new Norwegian oil firm Mime
Petroleum. Partnering with
Blackstone Energy Partners, the
combined investment by BWE and
Blackstone for Mime Petroleum is
for an initial sum of up to $1bn.
Carey Olsen Partner Andrew Boyce
led the team advising BWE on the
Guernsey legal and regulatory
aspects of its investment into Mime
Petroleum, supported by Senior
Associate Ruth Abernethy.
Collas Crill has advised Phoenix
Asset Management Partners in
connection with the investment of
up to £19.45 million by Phoenix UK
Fund in stamp and collectibles
business Stanley Gibbons Group.
The transaction involved the
restructuring of external debt and
the acquisition of certain rights
of the group in intercompany
indebtedness of Stanley Gibbons

(Guernsey), which went into
administration towards the end of
2017. The Collas Crill team was led
by Partners Sean Cheong and
Michael Adkins in Guernsey, assisted
by Fiona Wilson and Gareth Morgan,
Senior Associates in Jersey and
Guernsey, respectively.
Ogier has acted as legal adviser to
the Sandpiper Group, a longstanding client of the firm, on the
acquisition of the Liberty Wharf
retail complex in St Helier. The Ogier
team, led by Partner Jonathan
Hughes and Managing Associate
Katharine Marshall, advised on the
Jersey property law aspects of the
multimillion-pound purchase,
supported by Senior Associate Sarah
Parish and Associate Laura Shirreffs.
Partner Matthew Shaxson and his
team, including Senior Associate
Oliver Richardson and Associate
Chloe Watson-Hill, assisted
Sandpiper on the corporate law
elements of the deal.
Ogier has assisted Safe Harbour
Holdings with the admission and
listing of its shares on AIM. Trading
commenced on 15 March. Safe
Harbour aims to acquire a platform
trading business with an enterprise
value in the region of £250 million
to £1.5bn via a buy-and-build
strategy. Partner Niamh Lalor led
the Ogier Jersey team, assisted by
Associate Tara Kapur.
Walkers has acted as Jersey
Counsel to Westbrooke Alternative
Asset Management UK on the
establishment and launch of two
Jersey Private Funds. The first fund,
Westbrooke Yield Plus, invests in a
diversified portfolio of private debt
instruments with a focus on the UK,
Europe and US, and plans to invest
in other developed economies.
The other, Westbrooke Rhythm,
invests into a diversified global
portfolio of early-stage companies
that demonstrate innovative and
disruptive business models. The
Walkers team was led by Partner
Jonathan Heaney, assisted by
Senior Counsel Christopher Reed. n

www.blglobal.co.uk

News

MALCOLM

XXXX

www.blglobal.co.uk
november/december 2016 9
xxxxxx

News

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Jersey rises in rankings
JERSEY HAS RISEN one place in the rankings of the
latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 23),
taking it to number 39 and maintaining its position as
a Western European Top 15 centre, while Guernsey has
dropped 12 places to 53.
The index, compiled by London thinktank Z/Yen
and the China Development Institute, is updated every
March and September. Key points in this index include:
●L
ondon and New York remain at the top of the
rankings, with Hong Kong retaining third place.
●W
estern European financial centres remain volatile
– Hamburg, Munich, Monaco and Madrid rose
strongly, with improvements for Paris, Jersey,
Edinburgh and Lisbon.
● I n the Asia Pacific region, there were significant rises
in the ranks for Qingdao, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur
and Busan, while Tianjin and New Delhi are new
entrants to the GFCI.
● I n Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Cyprus, Istanbul
and Moscow rose in the ranks.
● I n the Middle East and Africa, Mauritius, Riyadh
and Casablanca improved their rankings.
● I n Latin America and the Caribbean, six centres
rose in the ranks, with the Bahamas rising 22 places.
The Cayman Islands are now the leading centre in
the region. n

Brooks Macdonald
announces 2017 results
THE CHANNEL ISLANDS subsidiary of investment
manager Brooks Macdonald has reported an increase
in net new business and is making a good contribution
to the group’s overall performance, according to its
financial report for the six months to 31 December.
The report confirms that the value of funds under
management (FUM) in the Channel Islands grew by 9.1
per cent in the second half of 2017. Revenues generated
by the firm’s Guernsey and Jersey offices grew three per
cent year-on-year to represent around 14 per cent of the
group’s total revenues over the period.
Across the group, total discretionary FUM rose 25.8
per cent year-on-year, reaching £11.7bn at 31 December,
and revenue increased 10.9 per cent.
The report also confirms that an extra £5.5 million
will be used to deal with legacy matters following
Brooks Macdonald’s acquisition of Spearpoint in 2012.
These relate to discretionary portfolios and a Dublinbased fund formerly managed by Spearpoint. n

10 MAY/june 2018

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
BDO in Jersey has purchased
Channel Islands technology
business C5 Alliance Group. C5
was established 19 years ago and
employs 200 people. Its growth has
included the acquisition of Cronus
Consulting in 2012, ITEX Holdings in
2013 and Altius CI in 2016. For BDO,
the move follows the acquisitions of
Jersey consultancies Greenlight CI
and Sator Regulatory Consulting in
2016. The acquisition takes BDO’s
staff count to more than 350 across
the Channel Islands.
Jersey-based corporate services
provider Crestbridge has acquired
Kingfisher Property in London. With
all the necessary regulatory consents
having been received from the
Financial Conduct Authority,
Crestbridge says it is progressing
with plans to bring the two firms
together. A full rebranding of the
Kingfisher business is planned for
later this spring, when the Kingfisher
team will relocate to Crestbridge’s
London office in Sackville Street.
Guernsey-based discretionary
fund management company
MitonOptimal International has
agreed the acquisition of Orchard
Wealth Management in Jersey,
having gained regulatory approval
from the Jersey Financial Services
Commission. Orchard Wealth is led
by fund manager Richard Harwood,
who joins the MitonOptimal board
of directors. Founded in 2002,
MitonOptimal offers multi-asset
funds, discretionary fund
management and portfolio
management services to private
clients, intermediaries and
institutional investors globally.
Financial services group PraxisIFM
has completed its acquisition of
Amsterdam-based Private Equity
Services Group (PES). PES is a

boutique fiduciary group servicing
alternative investment funds and
international business clients with
management, domiciliation,
administrative, corporate and fund
service solutions. It also has offices
in Anguilla, Barbados and Curaçao.
According to PraxisIFM, the
acquisition – announced last
November and completed on 30
March – forms part of its plans to
make the Netherlands one of its
main European hubs.
Corporate services provider Vistra
has acquired Canyon CTS, a capital
markets corporate and trust
business based in Shannon, Ireland,
and with offices in Dublin and New
York. The acquisition boosts Vistra’s
presence in Ireland significantly,
having purchased Dublin-based
Squires Gilbride earlier this year and
the corporate services business of
Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction
Banking division in 2017. Founded
in late 2014, Canyon’s team of 32
will remain the same under Vistra,
with existing Managing Director
Andrew Ryan continuing to lead
the business.
Vistra has also acquired Global
Expandia, a Jakarta-based firm that
provides market entry and related
services to foreign-owned investors
operating in Indonesia. Vistra says
the acquisition gives it a foothold in
the largest economy in South-East
Asia, which is an attractive market
for local and foreign businesses.
Established in 2014, Global Expandia
offers a service portfolio across
company formation, tax compliance,
accounting, bookkeeping, payroll
and work permits. The team of 17,
led by founders Miguel Latorre and
Elsye Yaw, will join Vistra, with
Miguel becoming Managing Director
of Vistra’s International Expansion
division in Indonesia. n

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News

CORPORATE | PRIVATE CLIENT | FUNDS

Outstanding
together
You are as important to us as your
clients are to you.
At Hawksford, we understand the
importance of finding a trusted
partner and consistently deliver
value to you and your clients by
anticipating their needs and
thinking beyond tomorrow.

www.hawksford.com

Hawksford comprises a number of companies operating in multiple jurisdictions; for further information regarding these entities and their
regulatory status, please visit www.hawksford.com/regulatory

www.blglobal.co.uk

may/july 2018 11

News

Appointments
Guernsey Finance has named Adrian
Norman as its London Representative.
Based in London, his remit is to promote
awareness of the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial services
and connect London professionals with
Guernsey practitioners. Guernsey-born
Adrian has 25 years of finance experience,
and more than 20 on the island. He has
specialised in funds domiciled in multiple
jurisdictions and has worked for companies
including Credit Suisse, Northern Trust,
Carey Group, Ogier and Odey Wealth.
Adrianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recent role took him to
London in 2014 as Head of Operations
with Odey Asset Management.

Vishal Soorkia has been promoted to
Associate Partner at EY in the Channel
Islands. Vishal joined the firm in 2007 as
a Manager in the assurance team. He has
been a Director for the past three-and-a-half
years, working across real estate, banking,
capital markets and asset management.
His real estate experience includes property
funds, residential and commercial property
markets with core operations in the UK,
Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, Russia,
Japan and Poland. Prior to joining EY, Vishal
spent 10 years with Arthur Andersen on
assignments for investment firms and banks
in Mauritius, the Seychelles and East Africa.

Jersey-based private client business
Highvern Group has appointed Natalie
Jelley as its Compliance Director. Natalie
previously served as Head of Compliance
for trust and funds business Link Asset
Services (formerly Capita Asset Services),
also based in Jersey, where she had
responsibility for the compliance function
of six service lines across four jurisdictions.
During her career, Natalie has also spent
two years working for the Jersey Financial
Services Commission as a Funds
Supervision Manager, having spent the
previous eight years as an Assistant Manager
within the audit team at EY.

Financial services provider Estera has
appointed Karen Benest to the newly
created role of Group Operations Director.
Karen, based in Jersey, will work to deliver
strategic and operational change within
the group, ensure service delivery and
adherence to regulatory and statutory
standards. Joining Estera as an Associate
Director in 2003, Karen was appointed to
the board later that year, a position she will
continue to hold. Earlier in her career, she
spent 17 years with Lloyds Bank and three
with Mourant Ozannes in management
positions. She is also an Associate of the
Institute of Financial Services.

Global consultancy Duff & Phelps has
promoted Malin Nilsson (pictured) to
Managing Director in its Compliance and
Regulatory Consulting practice in the
Channel Islands. Malin has served as a
Director since 2012, but joined Duff & Phelps
in 2007 from Deloitte. She has focused on
advising clients on regulatory matters,
leading regulatory enforcement and
supervisory reviews. Also in the Jersey
office, Sarah Bentley has been promoted
to Vice President, having served as Senior
Associate at the firm for the past three years
and at EY in the Channel Islands before that.

Jersey-based fund and corporate services
provider Alter Domus has named Antonis
Anastasiou as Managing Director and
Conducting Officer of its new Luxembourg
business, Alter Domus Management
Company â&#x20AC;&#x201C; formed after the acquisition of
Luxembourg Fund Partners in December.
Antonis has more than 10 years of
experience, having held management
positions focusing on alternative asset
classes and listed investments, most
recently at Lemanik Asset Management.
He has also been instrumental in the set-up
of three super-mancos in Luxembourg.

Finding the best
brains in the
business...
12 march/april 2017
www.kendrickrose.com

www.blglobal.co.uk

News

Bedell Cristin has appointed two Senior
Associates – Guy Westmacott in Jersey
(pictured) and Lee Osborne in Guernsey –
to the newly created roles of Managing
Associate. Guy has been with the firm’s
Jersey office since May 2016. He specialises
in corporate and commercial matters, with a
focus on M&A. Prior to joining Bedell Cristin,
he worked in London and the Middle East,
including five years with Eversheds. Lee
joined Bedell Cristin last July, having spent
almost a decade offshore, including with
Ogier in the BVI and Walkers in Singapore.
He advises on a broad range of corporate,
banking and investment funds matters.

Ocorian has named Alan Booth as
Managing Director of its UK business.
Alan brings to the role a broad knowledge
of the global regulatory and legal
environment, after 12 years in structured
finance, private equity and real estate
structuring. Alan previously served as
Global Head of Product Management within
Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Services
Division. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2009
and was responsible for strategy, product
development and regulatory processes
across 10 jurisdictions. Before this, Alan
practised as a commercial and corporate
lawyer, latterly for Hawksford.

Daniel Bisson has been appointed Vice
President, Wealth Structuring at Butterfield
Trust. Daniel will be based in Guernsey
and will focus on business development in
the Americas. He brings with him more than
a decade of senior-level experience in the
wealth management sector, including in
Bermuda and Jersey. Daniel joins Butterfield
from RBC Wealth Management, where he
has worked since 2009. He has held a
range of senior roles at RBC over the past
nine years, including Head of Fiduciary
Management and, most recently,
Managing Director, Wealth Preservation
& Family Governance.

Standard Bank Wealth International (WIN)
has appointed Greg Barclay to the new
role of Head of International Wealth and
Investment, Personal and Corporate
Banking, based in Jersey. WIN offers banking
and wealth management solutions to an
international client base, particularly with
connections to Africa, and is consolidating
its services under Greg’s leadership. Greg
joined Standard Bank in 1992 and has spent
most of his career working for the group in
his native South Africa. Before moving to
Jersey, he was its Head of International
Personal Banking in Johannesburg. He has
also worked for Citi and Barclays.

The board of the Association of Investment
Companies has named Susie Farnon as
a Non-Executive Director. She is already a
NED at investment companies Apax Global
Alpha, BH Global, HICL Infrastructure, Real
Estate Credit Investments and Standard Life
Investments Property Income. During her
career, Susie has been Head of Audit, and
then a Banking and Finance Partner, at
KPMG Channel Islands. She has also served
as President of the Guernsey Society of
Chartered and Certified Accountants, as well
as Vice Chairman of the Guernsey Financial
Services Commission.

Carey Olsen has appointed Michael Evans
as Counsel in its Jersey office. Michael
joins from Ogier, where he was Managing
Associate. With more than 10 years’
experience, he’s worked on a variety of
finance transactions, and for a range of
international institutions and borrowers, on
multi-jurisdictional bilateral and syndicated
facilities. Michael has a particular interest in
leveraged and acquisition finance, Islamic
finance and restructuring and insolvency.
He trained in the London and Dubai offices
of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and has
worked at Clifford Chance’s Dubai office.

he Guernsey Financial Services
Commission has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) with the Bank of England.
The new agreement is a reaffirmation
of a long-held relationship between
Guernsey’s financial regulator and the
Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority
(PRA), which dates back to the PRA’s
predecessor, the Financial Services
Authority.
Through the MoU, both parties will be
able to share confidential information
about regulated entities and formally
co-operate on other supervision activities.
The PRA is a part of the Bank of
England and is responsible for the
prudential regulation and supervision of

Pictured: Sam Woods (left)
and William Mason
banks, insurers and major investment firms,
regulating some 1,700 financial firms.
The agreement was signed by William
Mason, Director-General at the GFSC, and
Sam Woods, Deputy Governor at the Bank
of England for Prudential Regulation and
Chief Executive Officer of the PRA.

Private Investment
Fund updated

C

hanges are being made to Guernsey’s Private Investment Fund
(PIF) regime following a one-year review by the Guernsey
Financial Services Commission (GFSC). The move is expected
to improve take-up of the product, launched in November 2016.
The GFSC has amended the PIF rules and guidance to remove
the need for a licensed investment manager to warrant an
investor’s ability to sustain financial loss. The warranty has been
replaced with a declaration, which places a lesser burden on the
licensed manager.
The declaration may be satisfied in a number of ways, including
the investor having a genuine close relationship with the promoter
and manager through previous deals.
The PIF recognises close and long-standing links between fund
managers and investors. Over the past 15 months, 13 such funds
have been launched by domestic and international managers of
alternative assets including private equity and real estate. The PIF
can be closed- or open-ended and contain no more than 50 legal
or natural persons holding an economic interest, except where
an appropriate agent is acting for a wider group of stakeholders.
There is no restriction on the number of investors to whom the
PIF might be marketed – a feature not available under comparable
regimes in other jurisdictions. n

14 may/june 2018

“There is a very productive and
good relationship between the GFSC
and the PRA, and we see this
confirmation as good news for the
bailiwick, demonstrating that we are
regarded as credible operators by our
main counterparties,” said Mason. n

Burford plans to
launch Guernsey
insurance business

U

S litigation finance firm Burford Capital has applied for a
licence to establish an insurance business in Guernsey,
according to a report by CityAM. The new business, which
is reported to be awaiting final licensing by the Guernsey
Financial Services Commission, will offer insurance cover for
clients involved in litigation who may face significant costs
orders in the event of losing a case.
Burford previously offered ‘adverse costs’ insurance via an
agency relationship with MunichRe. However, most of these
were for less than £3 million and aimed at the mid-market.
The new business is aimed at more complex litigation and
arbitration cases.
Burford London Managing Director Craig Arnott said:
“This fills a hole in the market. Adverse cost insurance wasn’t
available for many of the matters we dealt with – big, chunky
commercial, competition and arbitration matters.”
Arnott said Burford’s clients needed cover ranging from £15
million to £25 million. He anticipated the new insurance
business would initially write up to 20 policies a year, focusing
on cases for which Burford had already provided funding. n

Guernsey has
a new star
Formed from Morgan Sharpe
and Heritage Financial Services,
we have a team of more than
90 professionals in Guernsey
and are now one of the largest
fiduciary firms in the Channel
Islands offering fund formation,
administration, accounting,
listing and depositary services.
We are a world-leading provider
of fiduciary and administration
services with 25+ yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience
and operate in 12 jurisdictions.
estera.com
Follow us

Regulatory information is available at estera.com

QUALITY ALIGNED

BL Guernsey

increased Open Market
activity continues

G

uernsey’s property open market
continues to show signs of increased
activity, according to the latest figures
from Unusualities of Guernsey, a compiler
of local conveyancing statistics.
In the first quarter of 2018, there were
17 open market transactions, compared
with five for the same period last year. This
builds on the 21 open market transactions
recorded in the last quarter of 2017 and
48 for last year as a whole.
The median open market house price
(realty only) of the 17 properties sold so far
this year currently stands at £746,000,
down from the £857,500 recorded for the
same period last year.
Jason Morgan, Head of Carey Olsen’s
property group in Guernsey, commented:
“It’s encouraging to see the island’s open
market attracting renewed interest.
“With new non-domicile rules for
individuals being introduced in the UK,
coupled with uncertainty around residency
status and higher property taxes, not
to mention the prospect of a Labour
government, there’s no reason why
a move to Guernsey shouldn’t be a
compelling consideration for high-net-

G
worth individuals likely to be affected.”
With regard to local market
properties, Unusualities of Guernsey
recorded 151 houses and flats as having
been sold in the first three months of
2018, down from 186 in the fourth
quarter of 2017 and at its lowest since
the first quarter of 2016.
The median house price (realty only)
of the 151 local market properties that
have been sold so far this year has been
calculated to be £390,000, which is a
£10,000 increase on the first quarter
of last year. n

Three straight years
of funds growth

T

he total value of funds business
in Guernsey has risen again, with
the Guernsey Financial Services
Commission confirming a growth of £1bn
in the three months to the end of 2017.
The latest figure of £270bn also represents
an increase of approximately £14bn
(5.6 per cent) over the previous
12 months, and a third consecutive
year of growth for Guernsey’s
fund sector.
The GFSC approved 18 new
investment funds during Q4 –
17 of which were closed-ended
and the remaining one openended – an increase of 44.4 per
cent on Q3’s 10 new funds.
Open-ended funds decreased by one
per cent over the quarter to £166.4bn, but
still achieved annual growth of £1.2bn
(2.8 per cent). Closed-ended funds
increased over the quarter (0.26 per cent

16 may/june 2018

Strategy
focuses on green
investment

to £166.4bn) and over the year (4.46
per cent to £7.1bn).
Non-Guernsey schemes – funds
not domiciled in the island but with
some aspect of their management,
administration or custody carried out
there – grew by £1.4bn (2.3 per cent).
An increase of £6.1bn (11.31 per
cent) since 31 December 2016
values them at £60.4bn.
Real estate funds were
the biggest mover, with
the net asset value
showing a year-on-year
increase of 42 per cent to
nearly £21bn, boosted by a
strong Q4.
There was also an increase of
8.89 per cent in the number of real
estate funds over the year, from 90 at
the end of December 2016 to 98 at the
end of December 2017. n

uernsey has unveiled a new
development strategy for the island’s
financial services sector, with a focus
on green investment.
Dr Andy Sloan, Acting Director of
Strategy at Guernsey Finance, said the
aim was to develop the broadest and best
range of products with a green focus
among international
finance centres,
incorporating
investment,
securities and
insurance markets
and services.
“The potential
for green and
sustainable finance is
enormous and streams
into major global
initiatives,” he said. “Action in this
area builds on Guernsey’s strengths
in private equity and infrastructure,
supports other initiatives in areas such
as impact investing, and supports
a general repositioning of the island’s
financial services offer.”
The Guernsey Financial Services
Commission (GFSC) is poised to launch a
new regulatory initiative known as the
Guernsey Green Fund. Compliance with
green criteria will be required and it will
be open to all types of funds. The
Commission was expected to issue a
consultation paper in May and to launch
the Green Fund by the middle of the year.
The GFSC also has plans to work with
the global insurance industry to enable
long-term green investments to be taken
on as assets to meet long-term life
insurance liabilities.
The initiative aims to make it easier
for insurance companies to access longterm investments – making it simpler for
insurance companies to offer sustainable
long-term returns to policyholders – and
to widen the pool of purchasers for green
investments. Interest from industry is
being sought as the GFSC develops its
new approach to regulatory life insurance
solvency requirements.
Sloan said a Guernsey industry
strategy group would be looking to
work with global organisations and
standard-setters to foster international
co-operation on green finance
development. Its emphasis would be
on infrastructure services. n

www.blglobal.co.uk

ogier.com

Pinpointing
what matters

Our teams are client-focused, expert
and responsive, working to reduce
complexity in everything we do. Our
clients are sophisticated, innovative
and international, collaborating with
us to build lasting partnerships. Our
advice is targeted, pragmatic and
commercial, and always delivered
with absolute clarity.
To the point.

BL jersey
Same gender, same rights
Christopher Austin, Senior Associate at Parslows, explores some of the effects of extending
the right to marriage in Jersey to same-sex couples
ON 1 FEBRUARY this year, the States of
Jersey voted in favour of the Marriage
and Civil Status (Amendment No. 4)
(Jersey) Law 201-. The new marriage law
will, for the first time, allow same-sex
couples to get married in Jersey.
The approval of the new law followed
a period during which a number of its
provisions were hotly debated by the
religious community in Jersey. These
included the question of whether it should
contain a so-called ‘tolerance clause’
permitting individual business owners of
religious conviction, who provide goods
and services for weddings and associated
celebrations, to discriminate against samesex couples wishing to marry in Jersey. The
clause was eventually rejected by the States.
The new marriage law now awaits royal
assent in the Privy Council. The Jersey
government has said the law is expected to
come into force ‘in a number of months’.
At present, same-sex couples can
already enter into a civil partnership under
the provisions of the Civil Partnership
(Jersey) Law 2012 – this permits same-sex
couples to enter into a legally recognised
relationship, which is only terminated by
death, dissolution or annulment.
It’s appropriate to mention at this point
that the new marriage law will provide
for a civil partnership to be converted
into a marriage, and it contains provisions
relating to the conversion application
process, and the restrictions on conversion.
This new marriage law, once it comes
into force, represents a further expansion
of a series of new ‘anti-discrimination’
legislation passed in recent years.
Arguably the main effect of that
legislation has been most visible in the
context of employment law. Those changes
were heralded by the Discrimination
(Jersey) Law 2013 coming into force on
1 September 2014, which introduced a
number of protected characteristics under
the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003,
making it unlawful to discriminate against
people in a variety of specified situations,
including employment, on the basis of race.
This was then followed in relatively

18 may/june 2018

short order (judged by the standard
of the speed with which legislation is
generally passed) by the Discrimination
(Sex and Related Characteristics) (Jersey)
Regulations 2015 and the Discrimination
(Age) (Jersey) Regulations 2016.

WORKPLACE IMPACT
In the context of this legislation, the new
marriage law must be seen as part of an
ongoing initiative by the States of Jersey
to reduce the areas of discrimination that
are permissible in the island. It will also
bring Jersey’s legislation into line with
other countries both in Europe, including
the UK, and further afield.
But what will be the effect of the new
marriage law on employers and employees
in Jersey? Will it have a radical impact
on the way in which employers must
treat their employees and, if so, what
will those effects be?
The answer to those questions is
perhaps less dramatic than might
at first be thought. This is because
the Discrimination (Sex and Related
Characteristics) (Jersey) Regulations 2015
already make discrimination on grounds
of sexual orientation illegal in the context
of employment, and certain other specified

areas, in Jersey. In circumstances
where such discrimination is alleged,
a complaint can already be made to the
Jersey Employment and Discrimination
Tribunal, which has the power to make
orders to address the discrimination,
including the award of damages, if it
finds that discrimination has occurred.
There will be effects on other areas
of legislation in Jersey in order to take
account of the changes introduced by the
new marriage law. This includes changes
to the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961 to
facilitate the taxation of same-sex married
couples so that they’re taxed on the same
basis as other married couples.
Same-sex married couples will be entitled
to the same reliefs and allowances as
different-sex married couples. Under the
current legislation, for different-sex married
couples there's one taxpayer: the husband.
For same-sex married couples, the taxpayer
will be the eldest spouse.
It’s also intended that the Matrimonial
Causes (Jersey) Law 1949 will be subject
to complete review and amendment during
2018/19 in order to allow for divorce
among same-sex couples.
For example, it’s recognised that the
amendments brought forward don’t
address the problems associated with
adultery as grounds for divorce, or refusal
to consummate as a ground for nullity.
The Gender Recognition (Jersey) Law
2010 will also be amended to provide for
the introduction of same-sex marriage.
It’s also anticipated that further
legislative amendments will be required in
order to enhance provisions for same-sex
parents regarding the extension of parental
responsibility, step-parenting agreements,
and parental leave for surrogate parents.
Steps in that regard have already been
taken, by way of new family-friendly
employment rights legislation brought
forward by the Social Security Minister.
Jersey is, accordingly, at an exciting
stage of its legislative journey to break
down more of the remaining barriers to
achieving equality between different-sex
and same-sex couples. n

nly the British Virgin Islands and the
Cayman Islands are less complex than
Jersey when it comes to accounting and
tax compliance, according to TMF Group’s
2018 Financial Complexity Index (FCI).
The index ranked Jersey 92nd out of 94
jurisdictions across Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas,
with 1 being most complex through to 94
the least complex. TMF didn’t include
Guernsey in the survey.
Jersey’s ranking puts it in front of
Hong Kong, and two places better than its
inaugural FCI ranking of 90th last year.
At the other end of the financial
complexity scale, China is the most
complex jurisdiction in the world, followed
by Brazil, Turkey, Italy and Argentina.
To determine the rankings, TMF
circulated a 74-question survey to
specialists in each country, with weighted
complexity parameters for regulatory
compliance, tax, statutory reporting and
bookkeeping.
Cengiz Somay, Managing Director of

TMF Jersey, commented: “Jersey has a
long-standing reputation as an easy place
to do business, and once again this is
reflected in its FCI ranking.
"Local laws do require that accounting
records are maintained, and annual
accounts prepared and approved by the
directors/shareholders or trustees. However,
the laws are relatively relaxed regarding
the format and content of the accounts
themselves. Likewise, there is generally
no audit requirement under local law
for private companies and trusts.”
TMF ranks the 10 least complex
jurisdictions for financial compliance as:
● 94 Cayman Islands
● 93 BVI
● 92 Jersey
● 91 Hong Kong
● 90 Curaçao
● 89 Afghanistan
● 88 Guyana
● 87 Norway
● 86 Bangladesh
● 85 Singapore. n

Jersey Finance publishes roadmap

T

he latest Jersey Labour
Market report to be published
by the States of Jersey
demonstrates sustained growth
in finance sector jobs. According
to the report, employment in
the sector increased by 230 jobs
on an annual basis, with total
employment at the highest level
for nine years.
A total of 13.330 people are
currently employed in financial
services in the island, accounting
for 22 per cent of total
employment.
While there were 50 fewer
people working in the banking
sector compared with the same
time last year, the number of
jobs in trust and company
administration reached their
highest level to date, at 5,380.
Geoff Cook, CEO at Jersey
Finance, commented: “The
industry accounts for more than
a fifth of total employment in
Jersey, and for every 10 jobs
created in the finance industry,
an equal amount are created
elsewhere in the community.
"These figures chime with
the feedback we’ve had from
industry – a recent survey of
firms forecast that 800 jobs
will be created in the industry
over the next five years, 83 per
cent of which will be filled by
local people.”
The latest Jersey Labour
Market report can be found
at www.gov.je n

A

head of Jersey’s general elections on 16 May, Jersey Finance has published a document –
Working Together for a Better Future – to highlight its vision for the future and a potential
roadmap for the finance sector and the island more widely.
The document outlines some of the key areas that are important to the industry, including
education, skills, tax, regulation, connectivity, innovation and Brexit. Copies will be sent to all
potential election candidates.
Geoff Cook, CEO of Jersey Finance, commented: “This is not about supporting particular
candidates. It is about putting clear facts out into the public domain and having sensible
conversations about our combined future success. The finance industry is the largest contributor
to the Jersey economy. When it does well, the island does well.”
The document can be found at www.jerseyfinance.je n

20 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

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BANK OF
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Nedbank Private Wealth is a registered trade name of Nedbank Private Wealth Limited. Nedbank Private Wealth Limited is licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority. Registered office:
St Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Court 20 Hill Street Douglas Isle of Man. The Jersey branch is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. The London branch is authorised by the Prudential Regulation
Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registration No: 313189. The UAE representative office in Dubai is licensed by the Central Bank
of UAE. Licence No: 13/191/2013. Representation in South Africa is through Nedbank Limited. Registered in South Africa with Registration No 1951/000009/06, an authorised financial services and
registered credit provider (NCRCP16).

BL Jersey

Jersey allocated
additional Brexit funding

T

he Minister for Treasury and
Resources, Senator Alan
Maclean, has allocated an
additional £440,000 to the Ministry
for External Relations to continue
its work to prepare Jersey for Brexit.
This increases the Brexit budget to
£4.1 million.
In a statement, the States said: ‘In
2016, the Economic Policy Political
Oversight Group recommended
£3.7 million as a first round of
funding for Brexit preparations
across government, for the period
of the Medium Term
Financial Plan
2016-2019.
‘Departments
have prudently
managed this
resource, drawing
on it only once
the demands
created by Brexit
reached the point
where increased staffing
became necessary. To date,
£3 million of the £3.7 million Brexit
budget has been spent.
‘Now that the Brexit negotiations
have progressed, and the UK’s
likely post-exit position is better
understood, it is clear that Brexit’s
impact on Jersey will be greater than
could have been foreseen when the
first round of funding was agreed.’

The Ministry has identified
additional activities and resources
required to ensure an orderly
transition to Jersey’s future
relationship with the EU. Senator
Maclean has agreed to add
£440,000 to the £0.7 million
that remains unspent from the
original Brexit budget.
This will support an additional
nine fixed-term appointments in the
Department for Community and
Constitutional Affairs; Economic
Development, Tourism, Sport and
Culture; the Ministry for External
Relations; and the Law
Draftsman’s Office – with
a focus on developing the
island’s post-Brexit
policy and necessary
legal changes.
Senator Maclean
commented: “Much
complex contingency
work has already been done
and it's a testament to the
prudence of departmental officers
that we are able to re-allocate
£700,000 of the funds originally
assigned to meet emerging
requirements. The government will
continue to assess the resource and
staffing needs presented by Brexit
and allocate funding appropriately
to ensure that the interests of the
island are protected.” n

island's funds
reach record
levels

T

he value of regulated funds that are
administered in Jersey rose to a record
level of almost £300bn at the end of
2017, driven primarily by an increase in
private equity business.
According to the latest figures
collated by the Jersey Financial Services
Commission, and published by Jersey
Finance, in the final quarter of 2017, the
total net asset value of regulated funds
serviced through Jersey rose by 10 per
cent over the quarter and by 12 per cent
year-on-year, to stand at £291.1bn at
31 December 2017. This is the highest
value ever recorded.
The growth was driven by the
alternative asset classes, which increased
annually by 13 per cent to represent
more than three quarters (77 per cent)
of Jersey’s total funds activity.
Within the alternative asset classes,
private equity fund values performed
particularly strongly, rising by 30 per
cent to stand at £82.7bn – the second
consecutive year private equity has
risen by that level.
Hedge fund values increased by six per
cent to £50.7bn, real estate rose two per
cent to £37.5bn, and the combined total
of infrastructure, credit and debt funds
rose by seven per cent to stand at £50.6bn.
The full set of quarterly statistics can be
viewed at www.jerseyfinance.je n

100th Jersey Private Fund
registered

T

he Jersey Financial Services Commission has reported sustained uptake in
the Jersey Private Fund (JPF), with 100 structures formed less than a year
since its launch. The Commission registered the 100th JPF on 2 March.
As the latest addition to Jersey's suite of fund structuring options, the JPF
was introduced to provide institutional and professional investors with a
more streamlined regime under which funds for up to 50 investors could be
established in as little as 48 hours.
Geoff Cook, CEO of Jersey Finance, commented: ‘‘Our reputation as a
specialist funds centre is based on our ability to provide speed to market and
expertise, as well as appropriate regulatory oversight. The clear evidence is
that the prospect of 48-hour authorisation for funds with up to 50 investors
is playing out well among fund managers.’’ n

22 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

Interview

As a commercial litigator with over 25 years’ experience,
Lisa Springate took up a new challenge in November last year
when she became Head of Technical at Jersey Finance. It’s
been a fast learning curve, but one that she’s embracing

Words:
Nick Kirby
Pictures:
Glen Perotte

What does your role as Head of Technical
actually entail?
I lead the delivery of Jersey Finance’s
technical services to its members. My
role is to assist in representing the finance
industry’s needs and concerns with regard
to legislation, regulation and other key
areas of innovation, so as to enhance its
offering and provide its members with
the ‘toolkit’ they need in order to compete
globally. My role also entails promoting
Jersey as a leading international financial
centre of excellence.
What drew you to the role?
I’d been a litigator for over 25 years and
had risen through the ranks, from Associate
to Partner. As I approach the big 5-0 next
year, I was looking for a new challenge as
I believe it’s important to keep pushing
oneself. I’d already joined the board of the
IoD in Jersey and Board Apprentice as a
non-executive director, for instance.
I’ve always thought that Jersey Finance
was an impressive organisation with a
very talented team led by Geoff [Cook,
CEO] and Amy [Bryant, Deputy CEO], so
I was interested in the role when it became
available. I feel really privileged to be in

24 may/june 2018

this position – to be at the forefront of
driving change – and proud to be able to
promote the many attributes that Jersey
has to offer on the world stage. I’m
enjoying the role enormously.
At first glance, the change from
commercial litigator to Head of Technical
seems unusual, but is it really?
As a litigator, my role was always
very varied and meant working under
pressure most of the time. It was also
very people-focused – dealing with
high-net-worth individuals, local trust
companies and banks. My new role is
similar, in that I look at a wide range
of topics, again under tight deadlines.
I also deal with individuals from different
sectors of the industry.
I’ve found that the skills I acquired as
a litigator and a Partner have stood me
in very good stead for this role – how to
lead the Technical team from the outset;
be a good listener, communicator and
negotiator; be calm in the face of adversity;

The skills I acquired
as a litigator and a
Partner have stood
me in good stead – how
to be a good listener
and be calm in the face
of adversity

as well as adopting various approaches to
reaching a resolution. What’s more, how to
maintain a reality check in respect of what’s
being asked, keep sight of the big picture,
but not lose sight of the detail. And, last
but not least, how to be commercial.
With everything that’s presently going on
in the world of finance, did you have to hit
the ground running?
Yes, very much! Geoff and Amy certainly
took me at my word in the interview when
I said I work best at 110mph. To be honest,
the weeks have really flown by since I
joined. There’s always something coming
down the pipeline and I think it’s going to
be more of the same for the foreseeable
future – it’s the nature of the organisation.
In the current landscape, what do you see
as Jersey’s biggest opportunities?
There’s no doubt that over the coming
year, jurisdictional differentiation is set to
be even more important for international
finance centres [IFCs] as they attempt to
stand out from the crowd. There are
plenty of ways in which Jersey is well
placed to do just that.
First, Jersey has demonstrated a
commitment to innovation. During 2017,
it brought a number of innovative and
unique products to the market, such as
the Jersey Private Fund – 100 of which
have already been established, despite
the short time they’ve been available.
Jersey’s Charity Law has also continued
to be rolled out in phases, a new Charities
Commissioner was appointed in 2017,
and the charities register is due to be set up
in 2018. It’s a framework that’s unrivalled
in other IFCs and highlights Jersey’s
ambitions in the global philanthropy
space. This gives private wealth lawyers
something else to offer.
Other innovations are in the pipeline too,
with Jersey continuing to stake its claim as
a centre for digital excellence. The finance
industry is focused on embracing the
capabilities of virtual currencies, regtech

▼

How did you get to where you are now?
After studying law at university and
completing my bar finals, I practised
with Mayer Brown JSM in Hong Kong
and as a barrister in London.
I was at bar school with someone from
Jersey and they’d always said it was a very
attractive jurisdiction with much to offer.
So, in my mid-20s, I thought it was worth
seeing what it was like.
I’d only intended to stay for a couple
of years to gain some offshore experience,
but I loved the island and the work and
have now been here 25 years!
I decided to qualify locally as an
Advocate and was with Bedell Cristin
for 18 years, where I was a Partner in
the commercial litigation department,
before joining Jersey Finance.

www.blglobal.co.uk

Interview

The

interview
Lisa Springate

Interview

And what are the biggest challenges?
On a jurisdictional level, it’s a challenging
landscape for the finance industry right

26 may/june 2018

there’s clear evidence that centres like
Jersey provide specialist cross-border
financial services that are an absolutely
essential part of the global economy
now. As we’ve witnessed recently, one of
the requirements is supporting members
through difficult times and making sure
that we provide them with the information
and support for managing their client
relationships, as well as the appropriate
tools for marketing their businesses and
the jurisdiction. Obviously, we can’t
sidestep issues such as the Paradise Papers,
and it’s imperative we continue to fight
our corner when such things happen.
In the 25 years I’ve worked here,
however, I’ve seen Jersey be incredibly
robust. There are a lot more challenges and
they seem to be coming faster down the
pipeline than before – but, if anything, it
means the island is reacting more quickly
and is more flexible.
On a personal level, a further challenge
is managing stakeholders and the many

priorities across the various sectors of
industry, the government and regulator.
The mediation skills learned as a litigator
can be of great assistance at times!
The question of whether the finance
industries in Guernsey and Jersey should
work more closely arises time and again –
do you see that as a possibility?
Collaboration between the islands is
already happening to some extent with
high-level agenda items. For example,
the islands share an office in Brussels.
Ultimately, it makes sense for the islands to
cooperate on certain fronts where there’s
a dual interest – as Charlie Parker [Chief
Executive of the States of Jersey] recently
stated in his address to the Chamber of
Commerce and the IoD in Jersey.
But we have to bear in mind that, at the

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▼

and wealthtech to enhance its proposition
in a rapidly evolving fintech environment.
It’s the future of global finance, and Jersey
intends to be part of it.
Second, there’s our extremely high
regulatory standards. Jersey goes above
and beyond most other countries where
standards of regulation are concerned, and
that’s been recognised by Moneyval, the
World Bank and, more recently, the OECD.
Last November, Jersey became one
of only six countries in the world to be
found to be entirely tax-compliant against
OECD criteria. And in December, the EU’s
Code of Conduct Group recognised Jersey
as a cooperative jurisdiction following a
year-long screening process. When you
look worldwide at the instability in other
jurisdictions, Jersey very much represents a
safe harbour in rocky waters. People want
stability and that’s what we offer.
Finally – and perhaps most important –
is the clear evidence that centres like Jersey
provide specialist cross-border financial
services that are an absolutely essential
part of the global economy.
All of the above help to differentiate
Jersey very favourably when compared
with other centres.

there’s always a fine
balance to be struck
between encouraging
innovation and
trailblazing in the
digital and tech
arena, and adopting a
prudent and pragmatic
regulatory position

28 may/june 2018

The Jersey Finance Annual Private
Wealth Conference in London in April
addressed the issue of technology in
wealth management – do the jurisdictions
that fail to capitalise on technology put
themselves at risk of becoming obsolete?
Yes, I think that’s a good assessment. As
a forward-thinking jurisdiction, Jersey
is always keen to work with partners
on initiatives that shape our future, and
there’s no doubt that virtual currencies
and blockchain are key areas in the fintech
space that are set to have a significant
impact on the future business landscape.
On innovation, Jersey has form. The
world’s first-ever regulated bitcoin fund
was launched in Jersey back in 2014.
And last year a crypto-denominated
fund was established in Jersey, which
trades cryptocurrencies and other ‘coins’
and participates in selected ‘initial coin
offerings’ (ICOs). It’s also now just over
a year since Jersey’s virtual currency
regulation was introduced – and it was
good to see the launch of Jersey’s first
ICO, the ARC Reserve Currency, at the
end of last year.
But it’s only part of the fintech story.
Jersey is working with developers, experts
and innovators right now to ensure that
it’s ready to play a leading role in such a
rapidly evolving area. We’re working with
Digital Jersey to focus on developments
in areas such as cyber security and digital
enablement. These are areas that, alongside
virtual currencies, will play an increasingly
important role in international financial
services in the future.
From a jurisdictional point of view,
however, there’s always a fine balance to be
struck between encouraging innovation and
trailblazing in the digital and tech arena,
and adopting a prudent and pragmatic
regulatory position.
What are your members telling Jersey
Finance about Brexit?
The UK is our largest and most significant
trading partner, so something that has an
impact on them will quite naturally have an
impact on us. There will certainly be a need
for us to look at and consider the impact
that Brexit will have on financial services,
and the impact on Jersey as a result.
This is why it’s good that we’re currently
undertaking a strategic refresh, working in
partnership with McKinsey.
Importantly, we’ve negotiated bilateral
treaties with the EU independently of
our relationship with the UK. From that
perspective, things are known for the
finance industry. Jersey is, therefore, a very
safe environment in which to do business.

What’s your view on the often-mooted
skills shortage in finance and what can
be done about it?
To be honest, this isn’t something that
I’m hearing from our members. Also,
research conducted into this area has
revealed that Jersey’s finance industry
is a major contributor to the island’s
economy, providing work for more
than 13,000 people, spending around
£370 million annually on goods and
services in Jersey, and contributing
£420 million a year in taxes.
Employment figures have actually
reached pre-financial crisis levels, with
more than 300 local students being
recruited each year for the past four years.
That said, there are a number of schemes
in place to make sure that we have the
quality coming through from a succession
planning perspective.
We have a very active educational
programme, where we go into schools
and colleges to encourage young people to
come into the finance industry.
We also run the ‘Life in Finance’
programme, which is designed to help
students progress from school to the
professional workplace.
However, we can’t achieve this alone.
We need to work with our member
firms to provide students with learning
opportunities, allowing them to get a taste
of what life can be like in finance and
encourage them to consider a role in the
finance industry in the future.
I would therefore encourage our member
firms to sign up for 2018, if they haven’t
already done so!
And finally, what’s your view for finance
in Jersey in the next 12 to 18 months.
The future of Jersey is inextricably bound
up in the fortunes of the finance industry.
We know from our island’s statistics that
when the finance industry does well, the
island does well too. Jersey has won many
accolades as a well regulated and reputable
finance centre to date.
The upcoming election in Jersey has
meant that not only has a lot of legislation
recently been passed, but there’s now a
good opportunity for the government,
industry and regulator to work together
during the period of purdah to consider
innovative products for the future that
suit the challenges ahead and thereby
enhance Jersey’s reputation even further.
Whilst the external pressures will
undoubtedly continue, I believe Jersey
will keep navigating the change, provided
that everyone works together and adjusts
their sails accordingly.
As a result, Jersey will continue to be a
safe harbour in an uncertain world. n
NICK KIRBY is Editor-in-Chief of
Businesslife

www.blglobal.co.uk

Interview

Protecting your wealth
with integrity and trust
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wealth structuring solutions for private and corporate clients.
Our independence allows us to provide a bespoke service that is tailored to the needs of
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Places can booked at www.cifundsforum.com
or by emailing carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

The Channel
Islands look east

The Asian market has long been viewed as a potential
growth area for Guernsey and Jersey, but just how do they
get to grips with the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remarkable diversity?
Words:
Kirsten Morel

32 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

the world with a view to doing business,
there’s little to be learned by referring to
a market or group of clients as ‘Asian’.
The world’s largest continent is home to
thousands of cultures and languages, each
with different customs, expectations and
ways of doing business. This means that
any company looking for work in Asia
should carefully do their homework before
deciding which countries to target.
“Asia is a huge area with a vast
population, within which there’s huge
diversity, culture, economic wealth and
development,” says Marcus Leese, Partner
at Ogier in Guernsey. “At one end of the
development spectrum, you have Japan,
which is hugely wealthy and highly
developed. At the other end, you have
Myanmar. There are also different
government structures with different
versions of democracy, or not.”
Geographically, Asia encompasses
the world’s largest and most populous
countries. But while Russia is principally
an Asian nation in terms of its area, from
a business perspective the tendency
is to classify it as a European country,
albeit an idiosyncratic one.
India and China are home to about
two-fifths of the world’s people, and their
burgeoning economies are attractive as
new markets for the Channel Islands.
Sub-continentality aside, however, the
focus here is East Asia, because when it
comes to island businesses looking towards
Asia, the main thrust of their efforts is

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generally towards the East and Pacific Rim.
“Most companies want to go to China,
but actually the bulk of business comes
from Hong Kong, Singapore, South-East
Asia and also India,” explains Nancy
Chien, Partner at Bedell Cristin. “Some
banks have work in Taiwan and Japan, but
that’s more in the corporate space.”
It may be natural for island businesses
to see Hong Kong and Singapore as
competitive jurisdictions, but to do so
would be selling them short, says Leese.
“Hong Kong and Singapore play a role
that’s not dissimilar to the one played
by London – as a hub for citizens of
other countries. Singapore is a hub for
countries in South-East Asia, while Hong
Kong acts as a hub for China and countries
in northern Asia. Importantly, both Hong
Kong and Singapore are incredibly well
set up for foreigners to do business.”

ON THE GROUND
Geography will always play some part in
determining the ease of gaining business
in new markets, but distance shouldn’t
put off the Channel Islands.
“There are advantages for IFCs with
close geographical proximity to their target
markets,” says Richard Nunn, Head of
Business Development at Jersey Finance.
“Our geographical proximity to Europe
and the City is seen as a positive attribute,
as is our time-zone. We can do business
with China in the morning, North America
in the afternoon, and Europe all day long.”
Of course, another way of overcoming

geography is to travel to the markets under
consideration. But is travel enough or
should businesses take up residence?
“Not all locations require a permanent
presence,” says Melanie Ison, Managing
Director of Nerine Trust, Hong Kong.
“However, clients seek a service provider
or services from businesses they feel will
be around for the long term. They want
commitment – so having a physical
presence in Hong Kong or Singapore,
which I believe are the most important
to having a successful business in Asia,
shows you have that.”
Ultimately, it’s the markets that provide
the best match for the Channel Islands’
skill profiles that become the target for
island-based businesses.
“Broadly, the Asian markets we target
are selected because of the strategic fit
of the products and the services we offer,
with banking, private wealth, capital
markets and funds all featuring,” says
Nunn. “At Jersey Finance, we work
with researchers to produce reports on
key markets, exploring what their priorities
are, so that we can provide the most
bespoke and tailored service to individuals
and firms in each region.”

DIFFERENT STROKES
Those in the Channel Islands know that
their strengths lie in their stability as
jurisdictions, as well as in the depth of
their expertise, which Melanie Ison believes
is their trump card. “Given the growth
we’ve seen and what these clients are

may/june 2018 33

▼

WHEN DESCRIBING THE regions of

Wealth

looking for – whether it’s in the private
wealth space, funds, insurance or other
industries – they look to jurisdictions like
Guernsey for specialist services. Guernsey’s
been a leading jurisdiction for years and
the expertise and technical knowledge is
exactly what I believe clients in Asia need.”
Much of the business coming out of
China is private wealth work that often
involves finding solutions for individuals
as well as their families – but there are
cultural differences that make the client
‘onboarding’ process rather more
complicated than would be the case
with European customers.
“Each country comes with its own set of
nuances and there are definitely issues
around clients not wanting to give up
control,” says Vicky Mills, Director, Private
Clients, at Hawksford. “You have to look
at ways to reassure them about giving up
assets to a trust, so education on what a
trust is and means is definitely needed.”
Education is a two-way process,
however, and Channel Island companies
looking to work in Asia will have to be
prepared for a very different understanding
of concepts such as ‘ownership’.
“For many South and South-East Asian
families, property is seen as a ‘family’ asset,
but is rarely codified through trust
structures,” says Susanne Shah, Director
at UK-based law firm Vardags. “There’s
a huge degree of fluidity of ownership,
both legal and beneficial, which is hard to
reconcile with an English approach. Assets
will often be seen as belonging to whoever’s
most convenient at the time, in a way
that English law struggles with.”

CULTURAL CHALLENGES
Among the nuances that come with
working in East Asia are the differing
demographics between nations. China’s
population has been shaped by its
infamous ‘one-child policy’ and some
of the consequences of this can be seen
in the concerns that clients have.
“Countries such as Hong Kong and
Taiwan, where there’s old money, are
looking to set up trusts more for wealth
planning and confidentiality. In China,
the motivation is more tax-focused than
succession planning,” says Nancy Chien.
“The one-child policy may be a reason,
as well as the new money mindset, which
focuses on generating wealth and views
taxation as getting in the way of this.”
Where more established wealth is
concerned, there’s a desire to ensure
succession planning that will protect the
family’s assets over generations – but as

34 may/june 2018

with all things family-related, many aspects
of this don’t run as smoothly as hoped.
“Family disputes are an issue. In some
family businesses, the patriarch is ageing
and wanting to step away. But the younger
generation tend to be less interested,
and their elders want to ensure that the
business will be managed properly in
the future,” explains Mills.
On top of differing generational
expectations, a tendency to view the family
as a single unit means that if a couple
divorces, it can cause serious complications
that can affect the structuring of the
family’s wealth.
“The big issues tend to involve trying to
untangle the joint family financial structure
first, as families often structure their
finances in a way that benefits the family as
a whole,” says Susanne Shah. “Funds are
often in the name of an elderly parent and
not either of the parties, or at best jointly.
Often, they’re not held in formal accounts
and large cash sums are held instead.”
The biggest faux-pas a Channel Island
business can make when targeting clients
in Asia is to try and create a template
service that treats wealthy individuals and
families as one homogenous group.
Whether dealing with a younger
generation that wants to enjoy life rather
than taking on their parents’ business, or
a family caught up in marital disputes that
require the restricting of trusts and
corporations, there’s no one-size-fits-all
solution to doing business in Asia.
Clearly, there are advantages to having
a presence in the East Asian hubs of Hong
Kong or Singapore, but if creating a new
branch is beyond the capabilities of your
business, be prepared for extensive travel.
As Nancy Chien says: “A lot of providers
from the West expect instant returns, but
after one or two meetings, they won’t be
ready to do business. Channel Island
companies shouldn’t expect instant returns.
They have to be in it for the long run.” n
KIRSTEN MOREL is a freelance
finance writer

Culture club
Among the cultural differences
between households in East Asian
countries and Western jurisdictions is
the attitude towards saving. According
to the OECD, China has a household
savings rate of 37 per cent, meaning
that, on average, households save
37 per cent of their income.
This Chinese figure dwarfs the five
per cent found in the US, which itself
stands head and shoulders above the
UK’s minus one per cent. Of course,
there are economic reasons for these
differences, such as the UK’s diminished
wage growth in comparison to inflation,
as well as the availability of credit in
both the UK and US.
However, when it comes to savings,
culture plays a large role and East Asian
attitudes to putting money aside include
an interesting form of group saving
called ‘hui’.
These savings groups are often
built around families or neighbourhood
structures. A group’s members come
together once a month to pay in their
pre-determined monthly amount and
to bid to take the money home.
In Vietnam, when a hui group gets
together, the bidding for that month’s
pot can have the appearance of a crowd
of lively gamblers. But the reality is that
they’ve come together as a savings club.
Each month, individuals bid for the
monthly pot, but they’re only allowed
to take it home once in the year. The bid
they make is the amount they’re willing
to pay the other members to take the
pot, and each month the bids rise above
the level of the previous gathering.
The effect is that the bids operate as
a form of interest payment to the other
group members. The whole system has
been described by the World Bank as a
‘rotating savings and credit system’.

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In profile:

Alex Knowelden
Citing strong workflows in Jersey’s construction industry,
Alex Knowelden, Building Surveyor and Project Manager at BHP,
explains why his multi-disciplinary building consultancy firm
decided to expand its Channel Islands operation by establishing
a presence in Jersey, and why he’s enjoyed moving to the island
What does your business do?
BHP is a Channel Islands company
that’s been delivering chartered building
surveying, project management, cost
consultancy and architectural services
for 30 years. These are normally provided
by individual firms, so having them all in
one business provides a streamlined and
efficient offering and helps differentiate
us in the market.
This multi-disciplinary approach is well
suited for more complex commercial and
residential buildings, as well as across all
building types.
We’ve been based in Guernsey for many
years, but have built up a pan-island client
base seeking this particular approach.
What made you consider Jersey as a
place to relocate to?
From a personal perspective, my wife is
originally from Jersey, so I’ve had a lot
of exposure to the island over the past
four years or so. When BHP decided to
set up a physical presence in the island,
it was a natural move for us as a young
family. We’ve really enjoyed being here
since the move last summer.
Was the relocation process
straightforward?
There really isn’t a better way to describe
the process than ‘seamless’. We couldn’t
have done it without the help of Locate
Jersey, who made the move as painless as
possible from start to finish.
Moving house, never mind island, can
be a stressful and emotional period for
anyone, particularly as we had a baby on
the way. However, the support we got, from
both a personal and a business perspective,
was invaluable – in particular, guiding

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buoyant property market over the past few
years, principally supported by confidence
in the economy and low interest rates.
Having a physical presence in Jersey means
that we’re better placed to serve this
economic activity.

BHP through the various steps needed
to establish our operation.
Even after we’d moved, the invitation
to Locate Jersey’s ‘after-care’ events, with
thoughtful consideration of who we might
like to be introduced to on both personal
and professional levels, made us feel
incredibly well looked after.
Is Jersey particularly well suited to
your business?
Absolutely. In fact, there’s a lot of
synergy between Jersey and Guernsey
as we have clients with property holdings
in both islands.
And it’s clear that our multi-disciplinary
approach is very appealing to islanders –
on both the residential and commercial
property sides – who would otherwise
procure their services through a number
of different firms.
We see BHP thriving under the
current level of demand for property
and construction services in Jersey – the
economy is very active in these sectors.
Indeed, the island has experienced a

How are you finding living in Jersey?
Jersey is lovely. The lifestyle here is perfect
for a family like ours with a young baby.
I love the landscape, especially when you’re
in St Ouen and there are rolling fields
coupled with a fun-filled shore line.
We also like the refreshing contrast of
other parts of the island, such as Gorey
with its seaside village feel. I appreciate fine
food too, and we never get bored of trying
the restaurants and cafés across Jersey.
In terms of getting off the island for
a holiday, transport links are strong too.
Whether it’s the proximity to international
airports such as Gatwick, or the choice
of direct holiday flights, it really does
make a difference.
How do you see your business evolving?
We plan to build a strong local team here
over the coming years. We’ve been
impressed with the calibre of professionals
in Jersey so far and have already employed
a number of valuable staff.
We look to expand our professional
team by taking on quality individuals with
a wide range of experience – this will
complement our existing workload and
meet demand in the market.
We’re confident in and excited about the
growth opportunities Jersey can offer us
and the people who work with us. n
This advertising feature was produced in
partnership with Locate Jersey.

may/june 2018 35

Advertising feature

The Channel Islands,
wealth management
and the modern
Middle East
Channel Island financial services firms are seeing a large
increase in instructions from ultra-high-net-worth families
from the Middle East. Ian Rumens, Global Head of Private Wealth
at Intertrust, looks at a rapidly modernising region, the
causes for this shift and how Guernsey and Jersey can benefit
from the increase in demand for private wealth services
THE MIDDLE EAST, with its wealthy
families and development status, has for
a long time been an interesting region
for Channel Island fiduciary firms, with
work trickling in over the past 25 years.
However, the Channel Islands are currently
witnessing a far greater level of interest
due to a combination of factors that have
been identified individually over the past
couple of decades, but which have now
come together to yield results.
There has been a shift in the mindset
of many wealthy and ultra-high-net-worth
(UHNW) individuals. They are now more
conscious of the risk of non-compliance.
Running parallel to this change is the
social modernisation of many of the
traditional states that make up the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC), such as
Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab
Emirates. This is most visible to us in
the Western world through the domestic
reforms put in place by Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
His ‘Vision 2030’ sets out a bold series of
economic and social goals to modernise
the nation and move beyond an economic
over-reliance on oil.
This desire to diversify on a macro level

36 may/june 2018

extends to the micro as citizens of GCC
nations are looking to diversify their own
assets to protect and safeguard them for
future generations. This plays into not only
the specialism of many Channel Island
financial services providers, but has also
seen Channel Island-based firms develop
new products and services in response to
the specific needs of Middle Eastern clients.

A CHANGE IN APPROACH
Middle Eastern clients’ requirements are
changing because of the internal factors
noted above, but these are allied to an
increasing openness to better relations
and more numerous interactions with
the West. Many of the second and third
generations of wealthy Middle Easterners
are now being educated in Western
universities. As a result, they’re
working for international firms before
returning home with new ideas and a
more global outlook.
These are exactly the kind of people
who are supportive of modernisation
reforms in the region and recognise that
their home nations have a role to play on
a global stage. Their exposure to education
and work overseas also makes them

familiar with Western financial services,
products and business practices.
This worldliness is partly responsible
for the introduction of revised trust
and foundation laws in Dubai and
Bahrain, and more states are expected
to follow suit. Intertrust is also seeing an
increased familiarity with Private Trust
Companies (PTCs) as structuring vehicles
for wealth management.
The issue of control is a universal one
for wealthy individuals and families, and a
PTC or similar structure enables a family
member to sit on the board and have direct
input into decision-making. PTCs are the
most popular vehicles for Middle Eastern
families for this very reason.
A secondary benefit of a family member
sitting on the board is the knowledge that
they can share with the other professional
trustees. This allows trustees to have
an intimate understanding of the
requirements of the client and build
stronger relationships, which has
always been one of the principal
strengths of Channel Island financial
services practitioners.
Flexibility is another of the islands’
strengths and a new approach from the

www.blglobal.co.uk

Advertising feature

client necessitates a new approach from
the practitioner.
At Intertrust, we’re being asked more
and more to manage horizontal splits in
assets, between business and personal, as
well as vertical splits between GCC-based
and non-GCC-based assets. This splitting
has broadened the range of services we
can provide, and we work closely with our
colleagues across our Corporate Services,
Capital Markets and Fund Services teams
to share experience on the structures
available in the region.

CHANNEL ISLANDS’ STRONG REPUTATION
The Channel Islands as jurisdictions
are benefiting from Middle Eastern
work thanks to their centrality, not
just geographically but also within the
wealth management industry. As mature
international finance centres (IFCs) with
well developed industries and highly
trained professionals, they have longstanding links with Dubai, which acts
as a hub for working into the GCC
nations and hosts a representative office
for Jersey Finance and a Guernsey
Finance representative.
A strong reputation in the area
of transparency, as evidenced by the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), increases
the islands’ global appeal as reporting
and compliance become increasingly
important in the minds of jurisdictions
and clients alike.
Geographically, the islands benefit from
their convenient time zone and position at
the centre of what many GCC-based clients
regard as a ‘triangle of wealth’ comprising
their home nation, Europe and London.

LONG-STANDING COMMITMENT
The Channel Islands’ reputations are
enviable but well earned. The jurisdictions
are at the heart of Intertrust’s global
private wealth offering.
Private wealth is just that – wealth
held privately in investment portfolios
or substantial assets. But the new
diversification means our teams from
other business areas also play a part

www.blglobal.co.uk

We understand
the middle east’s
culture and all its
differences and
have tailored our
approach accordingly

in structuring our clients’ wealth, be that
through institutional investing, special
purpose vehicles, PTCs, private funds
or regulated funds.
Intertrust is highly regarded by its
clients in GCC states and this is no
accident; we’ve had an office and on-theground team in the region for a decade and
have been visiting for more than 25 years.
We understand the culture, the region
and its differences, and have tailored our
approach accordingly. We have a dedicated
team that works in the region, comprising
specialists in Sharia-flexible financial
products, underlying asset classes and
further niche areas.
Crucially, we understand private wealth
is always changing and we work hard to
meet these challenges. Modernised GCC
states are looking outward and expanding
their horizons; their future generations
are more internationally focused and have

different expectations to those of their
parents as to how their wealth is managed.
The private wealth industry is evolving,
which means local knowledge and cultural
understanding are key. By partnering
with private wealth experts in jurisdictions
such as the Channel Islands, GCCbased clients are in a better position to
understand this evolution. n

FIND OUT MORE

For more information on Intertrust’s
services in the Middle East, contact Ian
Rumens, Global Head of Private Wealth at
ian.rumens@intertrustgroup.com
For disclaimer and legal messages, please
visit the Intertrust Group website at www.
intertrustgroup.com/site-services/disclaimer

may/june 2018 37

Wealth

Born in
the USA…
With offshore jurisdictions much
closer to home, why do US private
clients choose to do business in
the Channel Islands? and how is
that business growing?

Words:
Tom Huelin

WHILE THEY MAY be small in size, the Channel Islands have, for many years,
played with big boys when it comes to financial services. Corporations such as
Silicon Valley giant Apple come to St Helier and St Peter Port to do business,
with the islands offering the ideal offshore pivot into the City of London.
But it’s not just companies that transact in the islands. Private clients –
wealthy individuals or family offices – come from all over the world to benefit
from the high-quality companies and services based in Jersey and Guernsey.
According to Jersey Finance, £400bn is held in Jersey trusts alone, while
demand for estate planning and family office services – particularly for North
American clients – is also on the up.
But considering the fact that Caribbean jurisdictions such as the BVI and
the Cayman Islands are far closer to the US mainland, why are the Channel
Islands so attractive to US clients?
It’s worth starting by explaining that the term ‘US clients’ refers to an
individual with US connections, either in the assets they hold or through their
family. Roddy Balfour, Business Development Director at Equiom, explains:
“An awful lot aren’t actually US. A typical example is a family in an unstable
country, in Latin America perhaps, where the sons remain to run the family
business, but daughters go to live in the US. For these, the patriarch will set
up a Foreign Grantor Trust according to US rules, and when the father passes
on, the trust will likely end up with US trustees as a Dynasty trust.”
Guernsey and Jersey have maintained financial structures for private clients

38 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

and elsewhere
for more than half a century. Yet in the past 10 years, the islands
have seen an increase in the amount of US private clients heading
to the English Channel.
“There’s been a large effort made by trust companies in the
Channel Islands to rely less on UK and European work,” explains
David Lambotte, Client Director at Estera. “So I think our
jurisdictions are bearing fruit following five to 10 years of effort
in the Americas, and developing business from there.”

The reputation of Jersey and Guernsey as international finance
centres, coupled with an English style and responsibility of
trusteeship, are attractive to US clients. “We were one of the first
to get involved,” recalls Balfour, who founded Virtus Trust, which
later merged with Equiom. “Virtus was responding to a change
in US legislation in the 1990s, which meant that US couples would
be at a disadvantage if they held an offshore trust. As a result,
Virtus obtained a US Trust Licence, a move that other Channel
Islands trust firms have since mirrored.”
“In 2009, we invested heavily in our knowledge base for US
clients,” explains Trust Corporation Director Andréa Daley Taylor.
“Since then, there’s been a notable increase in a number of
historically non-US related families.
“As they’ve become increasingly mobile, they stray into the
US arena, one way or another. So we’ve found that the bigger
growth area for us in terms of using our US capabilities and
domestic offerings for US people holding US assets, is through
the family clients that have then needed our US expertise.”
However, it’s not just the undulating coastlines and fine
restaurants for which the Channel Islands are renowned.
“Jersey is known as the best jurisdiction in the world for
offshore trust service providers,” Lambotte continues. “The court
system is good, the network of advisers is good. The wealthiest
families are attracted to the best-quality service, and the quality of
individuals practising in the Channel Islands is very high.”
“I think our expertise in managing non-US assets for USconnected clients is a driver,” Daley Taylor adds. “US clients could
go closer to home, but quite often the other jurisdictions don’t have
the level of understanding of managing both – and dealing with
one service provider particularly appeals to clients.”

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international.sure.com

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

Jersey and Guernsey’s
expertise in managing
London and Europeandomiciled assets for
US clients sets them
apart from Cayman,
Delaware and BVIbased counterparts

www.blglobal.co.uk

CHANGING CLIMATE

Jersey and Guernsey to get away from
one Donald J Trump?
“Yes, but possibly not for the reasons
you might initially think,” Daley Taylor
explains. “It’s actually around the reforms
Trump is very quickly implementing, like
the tax cuts and the Jobs Act, which came
in at the end of 2017, and will effect US
individuals with foreign interests.”
Clearly, Trump’s leadership style divides
opinion, but overall the US economy has
performed pretty well under his presidency.
In isolation, however, the UK economy may
be considered less stable, partly due to
Brexit. And this creates opportunities for
US clients to buy UK property and other
assets while also benefiting from a
favourable exchange rate.
“Part of it is a play on sterling,” Bacon
continues. “If you’ve made your money
in dollars and there’s a drop in sterling, it
creates a buying opportunity for Guernsey
funds denominated in sterling, and for
investing elsewhere through the Channel
Islands. The Asian market has seen a lot
of investment into London and Europe,
but that’s also come from the US.”
As well as the benefits of US clients
coming to do business in Jersey and
Guernsey, there are good reasons for firms
on the islands to go over to the States and
look to do business with clients over there.
One is diversifying their geographical risk
away from the UK and Europe.
“For us, the US is a very attractive
market because it’s unaffected by Brexit,
AIFMD and general European regulation,”
Bacon continues. “If we can attract US
clients, then we can do business with them
irrespective of any EU regulation that’s
negative to offshore. There’s a lot of
uncertainty, but Guernsey is stable and
is potentially unaffected by some of those
bigger political issues.”
So, will the US private wealth client base
continue to grow in the future?
“Completely,” Balfour states. “Of the
nine referrals I’m working on currently,
eight have US implications. It’s been a very
good period. The business is alive and well,
but it’s morphing into more serious estate
planning, instead of people just hoping to
hide ‘rainy day’ money in cheap solutions.”
It’s clear that 10 years of promoting the
islands to US private clients has borne fruit.
And with trust companies, regulators and
industry bodies all united, continued
growth in this field is very much a target,
and on the cards. n

US clients may look favourably on the
Channel Islands. But isn’t it also possible
that they’re looking to do business in

TOM HUELIN is a freelance
finance writer

Jersey’s and Guernsey’s expertise in
managing London and European-domiciled
assets for US clients sets them apart from
Cayman, Delaware and BVI-based
counterparts, who are less familiar – and
less connected – with investment
opportunities on this side of the Atlantic.
In fact, the Channel Islands’ proximity to
London is significant, as Darren Bacon,
Partner at Mourant Ozannes, explains.
“The rise of US law firms in London has
inevitably educated the US market on
opportunities in the UK and Europe,
through the Channel Islands.”
That’s not to say US clients wouldn’t
want US firms to manage their trusts or
estate planning. The islands must be
proactive when selling themselves against
their US and Caribbean rivals. “Rivals such
as Bermuda, for example, are very good at
promoting themselves,” Lambotte
continues. “So Jersey and Guernsey need
to keep up that momentum and profile.”

may/june 2018 41

Wealth

42 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

What the
wealthy have
on their minds
they may have more money than
the rest of us, but it seems that
wealthy people have plenty of
things to keep them awake at night
Words:
Kirsten Morel

services we buy is an everyday part of all
our lives, but for most of us there’s one
restriction that tops them all – money.
While we all might like to shop at M&S
Food, there are times when our pockets
will only stretch to Aldi.
Whether buying a new car, tonight’s
meal or choosing where to go on holiday,
the amount of money we have is a key
determinant of our choices. And this is
just one factor that affects the lives of
us mere mortals. We’re also faced with
decisions around job satisfaction and
progression, as well as whether our
children will get into their firstchoice school.
It’s easy to gaze with envy at
wealthy individuals for whom
money is much less of an issue
– in fact, for many, it could be
seen as irrelevant. Yet, while
having a bucketload of cash
might mean you’re not
concerned by price tags, that
doesn’t mean you don’t have
concerns about how you navigate

www.blglobal.co.uk

may/june 2018 43

▼

PRIORITISING THE GOODS and

Wealth

your everyday life. Having money might
make life easier, but it certainly doesn’t
make it simple.
So, just what is keeping wealthy
individuals up at night – and what are their
key priorities in life, aside from business
and wealth management?
In its Wealth Report 2017, Knight Frank
focused on three key areas – the factors
influencing decisions around where to live,
children’s education and travel.
Knight Frank found that the highest
priorities for ultra-high-net-worth
individuals (UHNWIs) when choosing
somewhere to live were lifestyle and
personal security – both of which bode
well for the Channel Islands in their efforts
to attract wealthy residents.
They are factors that could have
influenced Roman Abramovich when
making his successful application for
residency in Jersey (although he’s yet to
move in). But it isn’t only Russians who
crave safety and certainty.
“We deal with people who move to
Jersey for a range of reasons,” says Derek
Rhodes, Director at Alex Picot Trust, a firm
that focuses on the UK market. “These
include security and the fear of a Corbyn
government in the UK. People are also
waiting to see what happens with Brexit.
Privacy is another important matter. The
very wealthy do worry about the security
of their information because people can
use it against them.”
This last point is important for the
Channel Islands, where a balance has been
struck between the need for transparency
and the desire to meet the individual need

44 may/june 2018

for privacy. They’ve done so by creating
registers of beneficial ownership that are
available to the authorities in other
countries, but which aren’t open to the
public at large.
Whether a wealthy person is from the
UK or Tanzania, Stephen Whale, Group
Director at JTC, says that the craving for
certainty and security crosses national and
cultural boundaries. “High-net-worth
individuals want the same things, no matter
where they’re based,” he says. “They want

People want their
children to be well
educated and socially
aware. Many are
willing to spend a
large tranche of
their wealth on it,
and finding the right
school is paramount

as much certainty as they can get, both
economically and politically, and this is
particularly strong for people from Africa.”

LEARNING CURVE
If you’re moving home, no matter what
your income level, you’re likely to be
interested in the standard of education
available to your children and, given
the resources at their disposal, private
schooling is high up HNWIs’ agenda.
“Education is key and forms a part of
the wealth transfer element of their
concerns,” says Fiona Waite, Director at
RBC Wealth Management. “People want
their children to be well educated and
socially aware. While experience of the
workplace is also really important, because
there are other routes to entrepreneurship
than just education, many are willing to
spend a large tranche of their wealth on it,
and finding the right school is paramount.”
The UK and US have developed
reputations as homes for world-leading
educational establishments and, as such,
places for their children at British or
American schools are highly desired by the
wealthy. “Schooling in the UK or the US is
considered aspirational for a lot of people,”
says Whale. “We have clients in Africa,
Russia and China, and they all say they
want their children schooled in the UK or
the US. They see this as part of doing their
best for their children.”
If your children are at school in another
continent and you have global business
interests, then travel also becomes an
important element of your lifestyle. But
that doesn’t necessarily mean every wealthy

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

individual has a private jet parked at
their local airport. “We’ve seen an increase
in the use of firms like NetJets [an aircraft
sharing business] rather than people
buying their own aircraft, but many
of our clients also use regular, scheduled
services,” says Rhodes.
Siobhan Crick, Director, Private Client
at Sanne, has seen evidence of people
taking the private route. “Private aviation
is certainly a consideration for clients,
particularly for those who have global
businesses and homes and therefore family
members in various geographical
locations,” she says. “We’ve also seen
clients taking fractional ownership of
aircraft, which often meets their needs
at a reduced cost.”
If an individual does purchase their own
aircraft or yacht, the reason for doing so
usually falls into one of two categories.
“We look after a variety of luxury assets,
including yachts and aircraft, and there
are two ways of thinking on this,” says
Greta Pender, Senior Trust Manager at
Saffery Champness. “One is driven by the
need to travel for business, while the other
reason is for fun or for bragging rights.
A lot depends on culture and personality.”

GLOBAL CITIZENS
For those whose interest is in travelling
rather than showing off, there are other
ways to increase their freedom to move,
says Stephen Whale. “Mobility is the key,
and many clients have multiple passports
to enable worldwide travel. We’re definitely
seeing a pick-up in interest in residency and
citizenship schemes because people realise
it can help with their travel.”

www.blglobal.co.uk

Of course, travel is often a necessity
rather than a recreational pursuit and while
families may be spread around the globe,
there’s often a geographical focal point.
“There tends to be a central hub, either
the home country or a major city like
Geneva or London,” says Pender.
And it’s here that some may choose to
site a family office, although not just for
business reasons. “If they can afford it, a
family may want a family office to look
after their needs,” adds Pender. “As well
as managing assets, they can be linked to
personal security and so may be used to
run bodyguards and concierge services.”
Although the media likes to put issues
such as personal security and concierge
services in the spotlight, they’re quite a way
down the list of priorities for the globally
wealthy. At the top of the list is a concern
for the family’s future and a desire to
ensure that assets will be protected for
many years to come.
But the next generation may
have different ideas about what
the family business should look
like. “A lot of the next
generation have a different
view to their parents –
they’re worried about the
social performance of their
investments,” says Pender.
Importantly, this trend
isn’t likely to pass anytime
soon, says Fiona Waite.
“We’re seeing that ESG
[environmental, social and
governance] investing is
key – it’s not a fad. After
the financial crisis, people

are aware that businesses with an ESG
culture do perform well over time and
so, in terms of the financial institution
that the family uses, it must be in line
with their values.”
When you look at the messages being
sent out by the Channel Islands’ financial
services industries, it’s clear that those in
charge have an understanding of the
priorities of wealthy people.
Both Jersey and Guernsey have moved
to create yacht and aircraft registries, but
these remain small in comparison with the
amount of business relating to succession
planning and the effort put into moving
with the times. So the islands are able to
cater for a younger, more socially
concerned generation.
The Channel Islands aren’t shy of
highlighting their proximity to London –
and from there, the rest of the world –
when promoting themselves. This ensures
that the mobility message is clear to
anyone thinking of swapping a city life
for an island one.
To many, particularly the mainstream
media, the lives of the globally wealthy
will likely remain portrayed as being
focused on living so fast that concierge
services are a must. However, the reality
is that for most high-net-worth individuals
and their families, like the majority of
us, certainty and security sit at the top
of their list of priorities in life.
As Siobhan Crick concludes: “The reality
is that wealthy people often have the same
core concerns that the rest of us have.” n
KIRSTEN MOREL is a freelance
finance writer

may/june 2018 45

Wealth

Where in
the world?
Wealth is being created
around the globe, and
some regions are regularly
singled out as booming –
but behind the headlines,
where is the new money
really coming from?

North America

44,000
5%

Latin America and
Caribbean

4,220
20%

Europe

35,180
10%

Words:
Richard Willsher

46 may/june 2018

TAKE A SNAPSHOT of news and business
headlines and you’d be forgiven for
thinking that the world is being overtaken
by thousands of billionaire Russian
oligarchs and a Middle Eastern sheikh
or three. Yet while there certainly is
wealth in those regions, a few headlines
don’t give anywhere near the full story
when it comes to global wealth.
While the picture may have changed
in the past 10 years, what has remained
the same is that North America continues
to generate more wealth, and produces

more ultra-high-net-worth individuals
(UHNWIs), than anywhere else on the
planet. According to Knight Frank’s Wealth
Report 2018, the region as a whole –
dominated by the US – is now home to
44,000 people who hold more than
$50 million in net worth. And of course,
many are a great deal wealthier than that.
Asia, by comparison, comes home in
second with 35,880 UHNWIs at the end
of 2017, according to Knight Frank, with
Europe a close third with 35,180. While
this in itself presents an interesting picture,

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

ASIA
Russia and CIS

2,870
26%

35,880
15%

Middle East

4,740
3%

africa

1,190
7%

Australasia

1,650
9%

the real story seems to be in the countries
where wealth is growing most quickly.
Indeed, wealth is being created all over
the world and the reason for this often
boils down to the same sorts of drivers.
Richard Tribe, Equiom’s Head of
Business Development for Europe and
Head of Private Office, describes the
picture from his perspective of almost three
decades in the global wealth market. He
says emerging markets have often been
beset by negative factors such as civil
conflict, poor infrastructure, lack of local

www.blglobal.co.uk

or foreign investment, and corruption.
Once these start to be cured, however,
private wealth starts to germinate.
“It’s about those things that you would
associate with building an emerging
economy,” he explains. “Where you’ve
had the opportunity for foreign companies
to come in and invest heavily in areas like
infrastructure, they’ve had local people
to help facilitate this.
“Then you see the rise of entrepreneurs,
in everything from property, road building
and telecoms. Local small businesses

prosper in cooperation with foreign firms.”
Tribe points to countries throughout
South East Asia and also increasingly
in Africa, where primary industries and
manufacturing are starting to develop
and thrive and produce wealth for
countries and their citizens.
This view is partly reflected in Knight
Frank’s Wealth Report 2018. Over the
five years from 2012 to 2017, the number
of people in Asia with $50 million-plus
increased from 26,250 to 35,880 – a 36 per
cent increase. Indeed, Knight Frank predicts

may/june 2018 47

▼

Figures are for the number of individuals with wealth of more than US$50 million and the percentage increase in 2016-17

Wealth

that by 2022, Asia will have almost have
caught up with North America, with a
forecast 55,740 UHNWIs. To put this into
context, the figure for Africa is expected to
grow from 1,190 in 2017 to 1,560 in 2022
– a smaller number, but a sizeable increase
in percentage terms.
Drilling down further into previous
Knight Frank’s findings, we see that some
individual countries have experienced
astonishing increases in their UHNWI
populations. In its Wealth Report 2017,
Vietnam outdistanced all others, with a
320 per cent increase over the previous
10 years. And with the brakes having been
eased in the world’s two most populous
countries, it comes as little surprise that
India’s ultra-wealthy population increased
by 290 per cent in 10 years and China’s
by 281 per cent.
By way of comparison, the UK, which is
home to more of Europe’s UHNWIs than
any other country, saw an increase of a
mere 28 per cent in the same period.

FLIGHT TO QUALITY
This changing UHNWI demographic
creates significant opportunities for
the Channel Islands. Factors such as
potential or actual political instability,
crime, corruption, natural disaster or
reputational damage soon have an impact
on wealth. No wonder, then, that global
UHNWIs seek safe places for their money.
David Lambotte, a Director within the
Jersey trust services team at fiduciary and
administration services provider Estera,
believes that Jersey is one such place.
“The appeal of the Jersey trust company
to wealthy individuals is a flight to
quality,” he says. “The jurisprudence and
the quality of the practitioners are the most
compelling reasons for these individuals to
use Jersey. Also, the islands are very well
known to the legal intermediaries who
advise them on structuring. They often
have experience of Jersey and Guernsey
from a corporate planning perspective and
some of that has transferred into private
wealth planning.”
Equiom’s Richard Tribe agrees.
“Since the financial crisis, there’s been
a huge flight to quality. It wasn’t just to
financial houses and companies, it was by
jurisdiction as well,” he explains.
“We saw people moving their wealth
from places like Panama and Cyprus
to places like the Channel Islands and
the Isle of Man. Clients say: ‘We don’t
want to have the headache, the negative
connotations, that dealing in these places
can have. We’d rather be in a very wellrespected and well-regulated jurisdiction’.”
Tribe says that, typically, the global
wealthy seek the same key benefits
wherever they and their wealth originate

48 may/june 2018

emerging markets have
often been beset by
negative factors such
as civil conflict and
corruption. Once these
start to be cured,
private wealth starts
to germinate

– they’re looking for protection of their
wealth for future generations, succession
planning and making sure that the wealth
they worked for decades to build is there
for the family. Confidentiality is the other
important factor.

LOOKING AHEAD
Both Richard Tribe and David Lambotte
are upbeat about the future of the Channel
Islands as a key centre for international
wealth management services.
“People living in countries where
they have a concern over the political or
regulatory environment are choosing to
move to countries that they think are more

favourable,” Lambotte explains. “They
are concerned for the safety of themselves
or their families. One would point to
certain countries in the Middle East and
Latin America, for example.
“In terms of the future, I still see
great growth in Latin America. When
you look at the footprint of the countries
that make up that sub-continent, in
comparison to, say, North America,
there’s still a large amount of wealth
growth. It hasn’t matured by any means.
“Likewise with Asia Pacific. We expect
to see that trend continue,” Lambotte
continues. “The long-term outliers are in
Africa. There’s a relatively small HNWI
population, but as stability and economic
prosperity emerge in the African countries,
there will be an ever-increasing desire
for service into those markets.”
He also points to Russia as a relatively
young market as yet.
Indeed, contrary to the image frequently
being pushed by the media, there are
only 2,870 UHNWIs worth more than
$50 million in Russia and the CIS,
according to Kinght Frank.
Historically, the Channel Islands have
drawn a great deal of their private wealth
work from UK and Europe. This is
changing, as they become jurisdictions of
direct choice for the global wealthy. Less
well-regulated centres are slowly losing
their appeal, and businesses in the islands
are benefiting from the global flight to
quality from whichever part of the world
new wealth is being generated. n
RICHARD WILLSHER is a freelance
finance writer

One to watch – Kenya
Among the mountain of data gathered in Knight
Frank’s Wealth Report 2017, Kenya stands out like a
snow-capped peak above the African savannah.
The equatorial East African country increased its
population of UHNWIs by 93 per cent in the decade
from 2006 to 2016. Moreover, this phenomenal growth
rate is set to continue. Knight Frank projects that in
the years to 2026, 80 per cent more ultra-wealthy
individuals will make their money there.
The explanation is that domestic consumption
looks set to increase. This is fed by a high proportion
of imported goods, which opens the way for
entrepreneurs to trade and generate their wealth.
Yes, there are political risks. Kenya, along with quite
a few other African states, has experienced difficulties
within relatively recent memory. There’s also an everpresent threat of Islamic fundamentalism.
But Kenya’s almost 50 million people are reaching
out for a more prosperous future and this translates
into burgeoning personal wealth for some of them.

www.blglobal.co.uk

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50 may/june 2018

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A UBS investment mandate integrates a wide
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Wealth

Investing
to save
the world
Ethical investing was
always something of a niche
market but the landscape
has changed dramatically, with
investors demanding better
governance from big businesses

FOR DECADES, ETHICAL and socially
responsible investing only appealed to a
handful of investors – partly because it
generally didn’t deliver the returns of
mainstream investments. But the times they
are a-changing. The financial crisis shone
a harsh spotlight on corporate governance,
with investors calling for higher standards
all round from the businesses they put
their money in.
This coincided with the rise of a new
generation beginning to flex their muscles
in the markets. The millennials – those born
between the early 1980s and 2000 – are
demanding that firms be far more socially
responsible, and are putting their money
where their hearts are.
And the figures seem hard to refute.
The value of assets managed under the
UN Principles of Responsible Investment
increased from $6.5 trillion in 2006 to
$62 trillion at the end of 2016.
The millennials have arguably become
the standard bearers of responsible
investing and, with their wealth predicted
to rise to $24 trillion by 2020, their impact
will continue to be felt.
But they’re not alone. Families aiming
to leave the planet in good shape for their
children and grandchildren are also looking
to the sector – while charities, foundations
and pension funds are increasingly
introducing socially responsible criteria
to their investment policies.

www.blglobal.co.uk

When 100 Jersey investors were
canvassed at a forum held by UBS on
the island recently, 72 per cent said they
were interested in investing in impact or
sustainable investments this year, while
64 per cent believed those investments would
generate similar returns to a traditional
portfolio. And as society’s priorities, such as
energy efficiency and healthy foods, become
more closely aligned with those of investors,
there’s growing evidence that these funds
can offer good returns.
The most basic responsible investment
strategies emerged in the 1960s, when faith
organisations began screening out companies
involved in sectors such as the arms

▼

Words:
Andrew Strange

may/june 2018 53

Wealth

industry, tobacco, alcohol, gambling and
pornography. But the sector has been turbo
charged by more recent approaches.
Impact investing, for example, focuses
capital on companies that bring benefits
to society, as well as environmental, social
and governance (ESG) integration, which
allows asset managers to include ESG
factors in their financial analysis.
According to Patrick Thomas,
Investment Manager at Canaccord
Genuity Wealth Management, the data
on the effect of exclusion strategies and
impact investing is mixed.
Exciting companies sometimes fail to
take the commercial actions to sustain
the business, so for every Tesla, there’s a
Drax. The value of shares in the North
Yorkshire coal-fired power station has
more than halved since its 2015 decision to
abandon plans to introduce carbon capture
technology that would reduce emissions.
But there’s mounting evidence that
ESG scoring, which ranks companies
on such issues as the way they manage
environmental issues or treat their staff,
can highlight strong management, which
is good for investors.
Thomas explains: “I think we have
enough data now to draw some pretty
firm conclusions about ESG. It’s our
view that thinking seriously about ESG
factors is going to help companies achieve
sustainable competitive advantages.”
In fact, if you compare the S&P
500 index with the MSCI KLD 400, a
comparable index which gives investors
exposure to companies with positive ESG
scores, the latter shows a slightly higher
average annual return, although it’s also
slightly more volatile.

FUND FOCUS
With £3bn under management, Liontrust’s
Sustainable Growth Funds are examples of
funds that invest in companies considered
to be making a positive impact on society.
They screen out ‘sin stocks’ and focus on
those that fit within three key themes the
firm believes meet the ethical concerns
of investors and offer long-term growth
potential – efficiency, health and quality of
life, and safety and resilience.
While these are vibrant areas of
today’s economy, careful analysis of the
fundamentals of each company remains
an important part of the process.
This has seen the funds invest in, for
example, ARM Technologies, which makes

54 may/june 2018

extremely energy-efficient chips for use
in mobile phones, and Equinix, an energyefficient server farm provider.
Peter Michaelis, Head of Sustainable
Investment at Liontrust, says: “We’ve also
long been looking for companies that
provide food that doesn’t kill us, because of
the epidemic of obesity, leading to diabetes,
low quality of life and premature death.
“So, we’ve invested in those companies
that provide healthier food and we’ve
seen massive growth – growth that’s three
times stronger than conventional food
producers. You only need to look down
your supermarket aisles these days to see
how much is given over to ‘free-from’
ingredients, herbal teas and rice cakes.”
He adds: “We’ve been running these
funds for more than a decade, and last
year every single fund was top quartile
and we’re comparing ourselves with
mainstream funds. Every single fund
outperformed over three years and five
years. We’ve just gone over £3bn of
assets in these funds. They started in 2001
and I think last year was our strongest year
ever in terms of new business.”
Traditionally, wealthy families have
taken a philanthropic approach to
improving society, often making donations
through a family foundation. But as
responsible and impact investing become
more sophisticated could we see them
switch their approach to investing instead?
Rob Broughton, Director, Senior Client
Adviser at UBS Wealth Management,
believes we’re likely to see an increase in
these foundations investing in a sustainable
way and then giving the returns to good
causes, which means the money is used to
benefit society twice.
The market for ESG funds is becoming
more mature. According to Philip Radford,
Director at Saffery Champness, while
growth was once driven by fund providers
creating products to sell on the back of
growing social awareness, client demand
has become by far the most important
factor. As a result, companies have had
to develop a great deal of expertise in
order to meet that demand.
“Now, certainly with what we do for
clients and what we hear from other
people in this area and consultants that
we speak with, people are more intelligent
in the way that they approach this kind
of investing,” he explains. “They’re
asking much more complex questions and
therefore the providers of the products

There’s mounting
evidence that
ESG scoring can
highlight strong
management,
which is good for
investors

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

really have to have substance around them.”
That said, much of the recent growth has
taken place in a bull market and it remains to
be seen whether investors will stick to their
principles if the markets take a dive.
As Rob Broughton explains: “In that situation,
people might look to impact investing more
than traditional strategies because responsible
investing is a very liquid investment universe
now and we think it’s unlikely people will
head for the door. What you tend to find is
that when you see big corrections, it’s the
instruments and assets that are less liquid
that have the biggest problems.”
Whatever happens in the coming years, it’s
likely to be the millennials leading the charge.
This is a generation that’s determined to make
a difference and we’ve already seen responsible
investments grow dramatically. So who can tell
where they will take us next? n
ANDREW STRANGE is a freelance
finance writer

www.blglobal.co.uk

Predicting BP’s
Deepwater Horizon
disaster
Environmental, social and
governance (ESG) factors are used
by socially conscious investors
to screen companies by their
performance in those three areas.
These criteria can be applied to
every sector, rather than just
those traditionally
thought of as socially
responsible. So, for
example, someone
wanting to invest in
an oil company could
see which ones have
the best ESG score.
Astute ESG investors
would have avoided BP before the
Deepwater Horizon disaster in the
Gulf of Mexico. Two years earlier, the
company faced severe criticism for
its performance on environmental
pollution, occupational health
and safety issues, labour and its
impact on local communities. And
in 2005, MSCI suspended BP from its
sustainable equity indices after the
Texas City explosion.
As the Deepwater Horizon
catastrophe unfolded in 2010, 50 per
cent was wiped off BP’s share price
– and in the wake of the disaster, a
peer group of major oil companies
lost 18.5 per cent. Since then, BP’s
share price has underperformed the
peer group by around 37 per cent.

ADVERTORIAL FEATURE

Getting your investment policy right
In my first article I set out the requirement for the trustees of a charity to have a documented
policy on adequate cash reserves. The Reserve Policy is a vital part of board governance and
also a means of funding future liabilities and commitments, Once this is in place the trustee
may ask themselves “how do we invest, and in what?”
The introduction of a new charities
law in Jersey (the Charities (Jersey)
Law 2014) and the appointment of a
Charities Commissioner means that
trustees need to consider their activities
and responsibilities in relation to assets
under their supervision very carefully.
Cash returns are at record lows and
trustees are understandably under
increasing pressure to mitigate the
impact of inflation on the assets in their
care without exposing the charity to
disproportionate risk. The most common
approach taken by trustees is to identify
an Investment Manager to invest a
defined sum of money against an agreed
set of objectives and measured against
a pre agreed benchmark and/or peer
group. The Investment Manager will be
a professional, regulated investment
management service that invests in a
wide range of asset classes to achieve
a balance between returns, risks and
liquidity. In this article we explore the
components of a charity’s Investment
Policy Statement (IPS) which might
set out how an investment manager
should manage the portfolio on the
charity’s behalf.
A well thought-out investment policy is
essential to achieving your charity’s goals
and, very importantly, demonstrating that
trustees have fulfilled their duty of care.
A written investment policy provides a
framework for the charity’s investment
decisions, helping trustees to manage
the charity’s resources effectively and
demonstrating good governance and
care. Consider an effective IPS as a road
map for the trustees and the investment
manager to follow, with sensible
checkpoints and clear directions (such as
restrictions for certain investment types),
setting out the charity’s investment
objectives (a preferred destination).
“A well thought-out investment policy is
essential to achieving the charity’s goals
and, very importantly, demonstrating
that trustees have fulfilled their duty
of care”

A written investment policy is a
requirement of the Trustee Act 2000
in the UK and generally accepted as
a universal standard of best practice
for trustees and indeed all types of
organisation to follow. Although you
cannot delegate the writing of the policy
to an investment manager, it is helpful
to prepare the policy in consultation
with them or a specialist independent
consultant taking into account the
charity’s individual circumstances
and requirements. Once the IPS is
constructed, most trustees delegate
the investment decision-making to an
investment professional and then review
performance of the portfolio against the
agreed benchmarks on an ongoing basis;
most of these investments will have a
long term outlook and it is important
that trustees stay engaged periodically
and hold their investment manager
to account.
Here are five key areas that need
to be addressed when creating your
investment policy:

1. Objectives and
investment powers
The aim is to give enough background
information to the investment manager so
that they can easily identify your mission,
beneficiaries, structure, type of charity
and the financial objectives.
This should include any liquidity
requirements and whether the trustees
are seeking a regular income which
might be used to fund future liabilities
or commitments, or a ‘total return’
approach, meaning that some of the
return is achieved through income and
some through capital growth of assets.
These factors need careful consideration
as they will inform many of the manager’s
decisions for investment and certainly
have an impact on overall returns (eg
earned income reinvested can have a
dramatic impact on performance in the
medium to long term).

2. Time horizon and risk
Your policy needs to set out the time
horizon over which your portfolio will
be invested and how much risk the
trustees are prepared to take. Risk is
strongly linked to time horizon. For
example, cash is generally seen as low
risk, but currently produces almost
no nominal return and remaining in
cash actually erodes value when you
factor in inflation (consequently,
if the trustees remain in cash the
result could be deemed high risk and
value-eroding over the long term).
Conversely over the short term equities
can be very volatile (up to 3 years)
“Any restrictions on the investment
powers of the charity should also be
documented explicitly, to remove
ambiguity and may have some impact on
performance.”

but over the longer term (5 years +)
the effects of dividend reinvestment
and growing company earnings means
that, typically, equity investments
can maintain the portfolio’s real value
(real means once inflation is taken into
account over the investment period)
and as such for funds that are to be
invested over a longer time horizon
‘stocks and shares’ investments may
be more appropriate than cash and
fixed interest investments. In practice,
a combination of different asset-types
is typically the most appropriate in
order to strike a balance between
performance and volatility.
Risk will also mean different things
to different people, so its essential
trustees and their investment manager
have a strong understanding of what
each other means by risk.

ADVERTORIAL FEATURE

“...a combination of different assettypes is typically the most appropriate
in order to strike a balance between
performance and volatility””

used as the basis of a performance
benchmark; such a benchmark
provides a constant measure against
which the trustees can compare
the performance of the investment
manager on a fair and relevant basis
and also a peer group average or predefined absolute measure may also be
chosen. A manager may be performing
strongly against a benchmark but at
the bottom of the pack in terms of
peer group or they may be perceived
to be underperforming when measured
against the benchmark but in reality
outperforming the relevant market/
peer group.

Many charities now have an ethical
investment policy in place. This
might be based on ‘negative screens’,
such as excluding investments in
tobacco or arms manufacturers
as standard, or ‘positive screens’,
where the investment manager is
instructed to allow investment only in
companies following the very highest
environmental, social or governance
standards (for example adhering to the
international standard of Sustainable
Development Goals).

5. Performance and reporting

4. Strategic asset allocation,
benchmarking and targets

In many cases the trustees will
nominate an experienced individual
or group of individuals to take
responsibility for the monitoring of
the portfolio. It is also recommended
that there is at least an annual face
to face meeting between the trustees
and the investment manager, ensuring
a more comprehensive review of the
portfolio, to document the oversight of
the trustees, and to ensure nothing has
changed that might influence or change
the Investment Policy Statement.

Academic research indicates that
asset allocation (the allocation of
monies to different asset classes such
as cash, equities and bonds) is the
single biggest factor in determining
both risk and reward over the longer
term. Therefore it is vital to agree
a strategic asset allocation that will
allow the charity to reach its long-term
financial objectives. This can also be

Trustees should assess the performance
of the portfolio on a regular basis to
ensure it is achieving the objectives
that were set out at the beginning
of the investment period. Agreeing
what reporting is required, for
example quarterly valuations and
annual investment reports, and how
performance is documented by the
trustees will make it an easier task for
the trustees to undertake this ongoing
requirement.

Quick checklist for establishing
your investment policy
1. Consider appointing a subcommittee and/ or investment
consultant to monitor and advise
Trustees
2. Make sure investment objectives
are workable and achievable;
changing managers can be very
costly
3. Consider your policy alongside
your Reserves policy; you can
work with your investment
manager to do this and only
allocate a proportion of monies
for investment
4. Document the rationale behind
decisions for future generations
of Trustees
5. Keep it short and relevant; the
policy will grow and develop over
time
6. Review at least annually, and
meet your investment manager
face to face!

Important information
Please remember the value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and investors may not
receive back the original amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Smith & Williamson is an independently owned financial and professional services group with over £20bn of assets under management (as at
Dec 2017). The firm is a leading provider of investment management, financial advisory and accountancy services to private clients, charities,
professional practices, entrepreneurs and mid-to-large corporates. The group’s c1,700 staff operate from a network of twelve offices: London,
Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cheltenham, Dublin (City and Sandyford), Glasgow, Guildford, Jersey, Salisbury and Southampton.

smithandwilliamson.com
By necessity, this briefing can only provide a short overview and it is essential to seek professional advice before applying the contents of this article. No responsibility can be taken for any loss
arising from action taken or refrained from on the basis of this publication. Details correct at time of writing. The tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be
subject to change in future.
Smith & Williamson International is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Smith & Williamson (Channel Islands) Limited Registered in Jersey at 3rd Floor, Weighbridge
House, Liberation Square, St Helier JE3 2NA. No. 109157. Smith & Williamson Investment Management LLP Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

Wealth

It’s hard to imagine that rich people
ever have to go to lenders for some extra
cash, but they do – though they’re not
borrowing to get the boiler fixed

How the wealthy
borrow
money

58 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

HOW CAN YOU tell someone’s ultrawealthy? Is it the fact that they own a
yacht? Or a super-yacht? Or a super-yacht
that pumps thousands of litres of water a
day through special jets so it’s stable
enough to allow passengers to play billiards
on board? Or is it that they own a classic
car? A collection of classic cars? Or
a Jumbo jet that’s been converted to cart
their classic car collection round the world?
Whatever the subtleties of the definition,
the super-rich appear to be a world away
from the rest of us. Even if most people
aren’t stuck in the desperate cycle of
payday loans, if they want to get on the
property ladder, they’ll likely be hunting
around for the least crippling mortgage so
they can buy somewhere poky to live. It’s
a world of borrowing that the super-rich
know nothing about. You’d think.
In reality, however, it appears that rich
people borrow money all the time.
If that seems unlikely, just look at the
army of specialist lenders that have
cropped up specifically to service their

www.blglobal.co.uk

makes sense to go to that lender, rather
than taking funds out of the business.
There’s also a tax angle. When faced
with a 40 per cent rate on money brought
into the UK, many resident non-doms will
fund their lifestyles by borrowing at more
attractive rates instead.
Even if they do want to use their cash
for something particular, they’ll still borrow
all they can. That way, the bank shoulders
some of the risk, and there’s no need to
risk conflicts of vision by bringing in other
investors to make the project a reality.
Why use your own money when you can
use the bank’s?
“Billionaires with a £200 million play
pot to invest can make it a £300 million
play pot by borrowing a bit,” says McCabe.
“They’ll never put all their money down
on a project just to maximise their leverage.
Would you ever buy a house without a
mortgage? Probably not, even if you could
afford it – because it’s easy. This is the
same principle, they’re just borrowing
extreme amounts.”

SPOILT FOR CHOICE
Not that the rich always have everything
their own way. In the fallout from the
financial crash of 2008, banks became
increasingly risk-averse, and shy of
dealing with assets any more exotic than
central London property. But the shortage

may/june 2018 59

▼

Words:
Dave Waller

niche borrowing needs. Among them is
largemortgageloans.com, the UK’s first
broker to specialise in arranging mortgages
above £500,000.
“We’re an independent specialist finding
people the money for whatever they
require,” says founder Paul Welch. “When
I started the business 15 years ago, the
nature of the brand meant people would
phone up saying: ‘Oh, I want to borrow
£5 million, £8 million or £10 million’.”
Welch is far from alone in this niche.
Asset Leverage Consultants acts as a
loan consultancy for borrowers. And
according to Business Development
Manager Jenna McCabe, business is
booming. “We’re arranging 50 sizeable
loans a year,” she says. “We used to handle
deals for £2 million to £10 million. But
the biggest now is £325 million.”
So if these people have staggering
amounts of wealth already, why would they
need to borrow? The simple answer is
because they can. When you’re ultra-rich,
borrowing becomes a strategic move – it
means your money goes further, and can
help you alleviate risk by letting you
diversify into a range of assets and sectors.
There are other factors. Many have their
wealth tied up in their businesses, which
may generate higher returns than those
charged by a lender as interest, especially
in the current climate of low rates. So it

Wealth

of lending didn’t last long. An army of
specialist lenders and challenger banks
simply moved into the market.
“Many clients with offshore structures
now benefit from partnering with
alternative or institutional lenders,
depending on their circumstances,” says
Jackie Vidigrain, Head of Treasury Services
at JTC Group. “But mainstream banks
are actively re-opening their lending books,
and challenger banks are recognising the
gaps that well-known lenders can no longer
service, and are filling this requirement.”
The upshot is that the wealthy now
have no shortage of options. It’s just a
matter of finding them.
“Four years ago, I was introduced to
a billionaire who had eight banking
relationships, but none of those banks
would fund a super-yacht,” says Welch.
“But there are specialists who cater to
these needs, and whom people just don’t
know about. The average person may be
able to name eight or 10 banks; we work
with over 150 providers in 52 countries,
all of whom have the ability to lend.”
One company that’s actively engaged
in lending is JBR Capital, a company with
a wealth of experience in asset finance –
helping people fund projects by borrowing
against their assets.
“High-net-worth individuals are very
often asset-rich and cash-poor,” says
Shalom Benaim, JBR’s Chief Executive.
“But that’s what’s made them high-networth. They could convert any of their
assets to cash, but they don’t because those
assets are appreciating in value. They’d
rather keep their funds tied up in those
assets than monetise them.”
Much of Benaim’s business works as

follows: an individual comes to him
wanting to invest in an area such as buy-tolet property, but is struggling with banks
restricting their loan-to-value (LTV) ratios.
A bank may offer a 65 per cent LTV, which
would leave that investor fronting a 35 per
cent deposit. Instead, they can use their
other assets – classic cars, say – as security,
increasing the bank’s share to more like 80
per cent and, again, increasing the options.
“We had one client from the Middle East
who didn’t want to bring funds into the UK
because his exchange rate to the pound had
weakened, and he didn’t want to take the
hit,” he says. “But he had car assets in the
UK, and he raised funds on those to fund
his kid’s private education in the UK.”
The assets being leveraged with these
specialists stretch far beyond classic cars.
There’s property – whether buy-to-let,
offices, warehousing, care homes or
hospitals; luxury ‘esoteric’ assets such as

yachts, planes and artwork; and investment
portfolio lending. McCabe says she sees
lending against everything from diamonds
to wine portfolios, and people wanting to
use the money to build an office block in
Croydon or a wellness centre in the
Caribbean. The rate might be between five
and 12 per cent a year, while some assets,
such as art, may only be lendable if the
person has a pre-existing relationship with
the bank. Personal relationships become
key – just like how banking used to be.
“I call it relationship lending,” says
Benaim. “It’s like the old days of banking,
but banks just don’t have the resources to
deal with customers on an individual basis
any more. Everyone’s treated more like
a number there, and the computer says
yes or no. We know our customer. We’re
present at things like classic car shows
and track days for high-net-worth
individuals, and we visit them to build
a picture of them and their history.
“So if our computer says no, we’ll look
and see how we can say yes. It works – as
borne out by our insignificant default rate.”
But if personal service is the key to
winning business, there’s one other factor
that may well sway decisions, and it may
also suggest why wealthy people are in that
position in the first place. “People always
come to us saying they don’t mind about
the price,” says McCabe. “Then you lay out
four options in front of them, and they
always go with the cheapest.”
Again, beyond the billiards-friendly
yachts and the flying car collections, these
super-rich don’t seem so different from the
rest of us after all. n
DAVE WALLER is a freelance writer

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

Rich, richer,
richest…
Words:
Richard Willsher

www.blglobal.co.uk

LI KA-SHING, WHO’S reportedly the richest
man in Hong Kong, has decided to retire – at
the age of 89. Could he be one of last of the
old-style billionaires?
Maybe. But then again, maybe not. Listening
to the noise surrounding the publication of the
2018 edition of Forbes World’s Billionaires,
it would be easy to imagine that the world’s
wealthiest people were all younger techies.
The top 10 seems to point that way. Jeff Bezos,
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison…
We could think about them as technology

moguls. And if we stretch the list a little further,
we see that Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin
clock in at numbers 12 and 13 on the Forbes
list, each worth in the region of $48bn. So that’s
six out of the top 13.
But look at the list a little closer and the
picture takes on a distinctly different dimension.
Warren Buffett (3), Bernard Arnault (4),
Amancio Ortega (6), Carlos Slim (7) and the
Koch brothers (equal 8) – these men are neither
young nor techies. They, like Li Ka-shing – who’s
ranked number 23 by Forbes, incidentally – have

may/june 2018 61

▼

As Jeff Bezos is named the world’s richest
person, does technology now rule the roost
when it comes to global billionaires?

Wealth

all built their business empires over many
years. What’s more, when you cast your
eyes further down the list, only five
billionaires out of the top 50 are under
the age of 50. While 50 isn’t old, this
stat gives lie to the notion that the ultrawealthy are all college kids who took
a fast track to their first IPO.
“The high-profile nature of the young
tech entrepreneurs may convince us that
there are more of these people around than
there really are,” says Matt Tabb, Global
Head of Corporate Communications at
wealth services provider Equiom. “There’s
still a core of very wealthy people whose
wealth has been built up over many years
– from industry or inheritance, for example.
“The biggest change is that the wealth
has been distributed more evenly around
the globe. Thirty years ago, the vast bulk
of ultra-high-net-worth individuals [usually
defined as those with net worth exceeding
$30 million] were located in the US and
Europe. That’s certainly changed –
especially with the opening up of Asia,
and of China in particular.”
Wealth can be generated across
a very broad range of sectors. Nick Train,
co-founder of London-based fund manager
Lindsell Train, points out that although
a quarter of the top 100 billionaires
listed in the 2016 Forbes list made their
money broadly in technology – including,
for example, pharmaceuticals – natural
resources, real estate, financial services and
retail all figure as sources of significant
wealth as well.

INHERITANCE TRENDS
What’s more, inherited wealth not
only endows many current UHNWIs,
it’s a wealth source that’s set to burgeon.
David Batey, Executive Director for
Coutts Crown Dependencies in Jersey,
says: “Studies estimate that £1 trillion
will pass down from one generation to
the next over the next 20 years or so.
“Family-owned businesses are also
hugely important to the global economy.
Many families, but not all, will transfer
their wealth and/or business successfully
as they grapple with the complexities
combined with a reluctance to discuss
the subject.”
Back to the Forbes list and, as if to
prove the point, we see that three members
of the Walton (Walmart) family slot in at
numbers 14, 15 and 16. They inherited
their wealth from founders Sam and
James, who died in the 1990s. Not far

62 may/june 2018

2

behind them is Françoise
Bettencourt Meyers, heiress
to the L’Oréal empire.
Old money, then, is still
a key feature of the ultrawealthy landscape. What’s
more, businesses such as
Amazon or Google couldn’t
have existed until relatively
recently. Look at Forbes’ 1987 list
of wealthy Americans, and although
30 years have elapsed, some familiar
names appear.
Top of the bill is Walmart’s Sam Walton,
who’s worth $8.7bn. Second is John
Werner Kluge, a media billionaire whose
business empire morphed into the Fox TV
network. Third is Ross Perot, sometime
presidential hopeful and, by some
definitions, a techie.
His business interests included datahandling firm EDS; a big investment in
Steve Jobs before his second coming at
Apple; and Perot Systems, which he sold
to Dell. Behind him appears David Packard
of HP, another techie. The youngest of
these, incidentally, was Perot, then aged 57,
while the other three were all 73 or older.
As you look down the 1987 list,
Warren Buffett is in ninth place. Then, as
now, the sources of wealth of many others
are spread across a range of industries,
including media, brewing and drinks,
and real estate.
Interestingly, one William Henry Gates
III ranks as 29th richest – his source of
wealth is described as ‘high technology’.
If you look back even further, to 1937,
billionaires were fewer, but at least one
of them was wealthier than today’s bunch.
That was the year in which John Davison
Rockefeller passed away, leaving a pile
of assets reported to be equal to 1.5 per
cent of the GDP of the US. In today’s
money, with US GDP estimated by the
Central Intelligence Agency’s World
Factbook to be $19.36 trillion, that
would work out at around $300bn –
nearly treble the wealth of Jeff Bezos.

3

4

But there are some important
comparisons we might draw with today’s
new wealthy. Rockefeller, through his
Standard Oil empire, bought refineries and
pipelines to distribute oil, as the industry
was starting to develop in the last two
decades of the 19th century.
In so doing, it ended up controlling
access to 90 per cent of the American
oil market. Two points are worth noting
here: Standard Oil developed a massive
monopoly; and it neither owned the oil
nor had the rights to produce it, but it
had access to it.
Look at some of today’s billionaires
and they also have huge monopolies –
Microsoft, in providing the operating

systems of the majority of the world’s
computers; Google, in the search engine
space; and Facebook, in access to friends
and acquaintances.
They also have, effectively, controlling
market shares. Likewise, Amazon arguably
provides access to the world’s largest
department store. Where do so many
of us go to buy a huge range of goods
cheaply and conveniently?
However, there’s one crucial difference
between the internet billionaires and JD
Rockefeller’s business empire.
“They’re controlling access to a vast
global market in today’s wired world,”
explains Matt Tabb. “People want access
to information now, and the faster you can

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supply it, the more valuable it becomes.”
The global reach of the web adds scale
advantages that Rockefeller could only
have dreamed of. How much wealthier
would he have been if he’d controlled
access to 90 per cent of the world’s oil?

FUTURE WEALTH
The Forbes list shows there are still
relatively few women among the world’s
wealthiest. When they do appear, their
wealth tends to be inherited – Alice Walton,
for example, is the highest ranked woman
on the list, at 16. Matt Tabb believes
that this is likely to change as female
entrepreneurs become more common.
The international spread of the

UHNWI community is already well
under way. But this is likely to continue,
not only because of the rise of the wealthy
in emerging markets but also because the
wealthy are internationally mobile.
Knight Frank’s 2017 Wealth
Report notes, for example, that
Monaco has the highest proportion
of UHNWIs per head of population.
This, says the report, is because
they seek havens to live in, with their
associated tax advantages and lifestyle
benefits. And ease of communication
means that the wealthy can now live
where they want and still run their
businesses and investments conveniently.
Despite the continuing importance
of inherited wealth, technology UHNWIs
seem likely to feature more frequently
in the wealth lists, as they’ve been doing
for some time.
But don’t be surprised if the Waltons,
the Kochs and other wealthy dynasties
feature for many years to come. Wealth,
properly managed, breeds more wealth.
This fundamental truth is likely to endure,
though the word ‘properly’ comes heavily
loaded with risk as well as reward. n
RICHARD WILLSHER is a freelance
finance writer

may/june 2018 63

Xxxxx

location,
location,
location...

High-end property in global hotspots continues to
attract the ultra-wealthy – and sky-high prices don’t
seem to be cancelling out the lure of city living
Words:
David Burrows

THOSE LUCKY AND WEALTHY enough to own an

apartment overlooking Central Park or a Georgian
pied-à-terre in Holland Park are unlikely ever to lose a
penny (or cent) on their investment. London and New
York have been prime locations for years – at least in
‘des res’ post codes – and nothing looks set to change.
Some places simply never lose their allure. In
London, Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea tick all the
boxes on the ‘address to impress’ list. You’ll need deep
pockets though – a six-bed terrace house in Chelsea
will currently cost you around a cool £26 million. Or
if you’re looking for up-and-coming areas and more
brick for your buck, then regenerated Stratford (postOlympics) can offer you a five-bedroom, Grade II-listed
house for a much more reasonable £1.5 million.
Alternatively, if you fancy having Robert de Niro
as a neighbour in the trendy Tribeca area of New York,

64 may/june 2018

a modest-sized, two-bedroom loft apartment will set
you back around $5 million.
As TV property programmes will tell you, location
is everything and the most in-demand areas should,
in theory, insulate you from the worst of any market
correction. Not that any major correction is imminent.
The fact is that despite talk of bubbles, in recent years
the global market in prime locations has held up well,
with foreign investors continuing to see property as an
asset class offering security and long-term potential.
But no matter how buoyant and lucrative a market
appears, history tells us that the landscape can change
quite suddenly. Think Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac in
the US and the Asian property bubble of 1997. There
are always triggers that can instigate a shift in market
confidence and direction.
One obvious concern presently is Brexit and how

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Wealth

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Joel Hernandez, Partner at Mourant Ozannes,
agrees that Brexit has had an impact on the UK
property market – with a softening in the commercial
property market having a knock-on effect on the
residential side of things.
“Logically, if companies are moving headquarters
away from London due to Brexit, then the demand for
residential housing will reduce,” he says.

PRIME PRICES
Given that London in general is a softening market
in terms of volumes of sales, why are prime central
London residential properties still selling so well?
Partly, it’s because they remain more attractive areas
to be based, but also because of price, as Liam Bailey,
Knight Frank’s Global Head of Research, explains.
“Prices in London peaked in 2014. Since then, the
average prices in prime London locations have come
down five to 15 per cent,” he says. “We saw price falls
in 2016 and 2017, with sellers adjusting prices to make
the market more accessible for buyers.”
Bailey explains that the increase in stamp duty
on higher value property in the UK also had a major
impact in terms of cooling valuations. He agrees with
Harris that EU investor interest may have dipped due

▼

it’s affecting the London market. The central London
skyline may well be filled with the silhouettes of tower
cranes, but this doesn’t paint the whole picture of
what’s going on in the capital.
As Johnny Morris, Head of Hamptons International
Research team, points out, specific prime sites in the
London market might be attracting healthy interest,
but elsewhere the market is showing signs of softening.
There’s also been a subtle change in where buyer
interest is coming from in the run-up to Brexit. The
proportion of homes sold to international buyers in
London generally fell slightly in the second half of
2017. However, the proportion of homes sold to
international buyers in prime central London increased,
up eight per cent on the first half of the year and up
16 per cent compared with the second half of 2016.
What’s fascinating is where the interest is coming
from. “The rise was due to a pick-up in Middle Eastern
buyers, who bought 15 per cent of homes in prime
central London in the second half of 2017, up five per
cent on the first half,” Morris explains. “Even though
EU buyers still make up the second biggest group of
international buyers in prime central London, they’ve
been gradually withdrawing as a proportion of total
sales since the Brexit vote in June 2016.”

may/june 2018 65

Xxxxx

For investors
from countries
pegged to the US
dollar, a weak
sterling has
provided a good
opportunity to buy

to the UK referendum on Europe, but he’s
keen to point out that the wrangling over
Brexit did, unwittingly, offer indirect
benefits to other investors.
“The weakening UK currency postBrexit vote did have an impact. For those
investors from countries pegged to the
US dollar, a weak sterling provided a
good opportunity to buy,” Bailey says.
In terms of geographical locations, Bailey
insists prime urban markets are still
proving the biggest pull. “Key cities such
as New York, London, Berlin and Frankfurt
have been strong over the past five years
and continue to hold up pretty well.
They remain strong because of investment
potential and the ability to let out and
earn good income, particularly in areas
where tech and financial services
companies are concentrated.”
As one of the world’s biggest financial
centres, New York has undoubtedly
enjoyed a period of strong growth.
In 2016, the average price of a Manhattan
apartment rose above $2 million for
the first time. So, clearly not an area
for bargain hunters – unless your idea of
a bargain starts at £2 million and rising.
As with London, the Manhattan skyline
has seen significant change, typified by
the opening in 2016 of 432 Park Avenue,
a 96-storey tower hailed as the tallest
residential building in the US. Prestigious
developments such as this forced prices in
Manhattan even higher. On completion
of the tower, the most expensive units were
sold for an eye-watering $87.6 million,
$60.9 million and $50.1 million.
Since the completion of 432 Park
Avenue, the New York property market
has cooled a little. According to a report
in the New York Times, less than half of
apartments in the city sold at or above list
price from the tail end of 2016 – the first
downward trend since 2014.
This isn’t to say that property prices are

66 may/june 2018

unduly under pressure, or that prime
location rents are being squeezed. The
average one-bedroom city centre apartment
will set you back $3,184 per month. To put
that in context, the average monthly salary
in New York (after tax) stands at $3,947.
While you’re unlikely to make a killing
in the Manhattan property market in terms
of capital appreciation, central locations
are still highly sought after, and rental
demand and yields remain strong.

ICH BIN EIN BERLINER
On the other side of the pond, the
residential market in Europe has recovered
well since 2009, when confidence levels
fell and sales volumes dropped on the back
of the financial crisis. “Berlin and Paris,
in particular, have come back strongly
since then, partly due to the fact that the
Eurozone economy has improved over
this period,” Bailey says.

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Wealth

Credit: Shutterstock.com

Certainly, if you’re looking for better
value and greater potential for price
appreciation, then Berlin might be the
place to be. According to a recent European
property survey, an apartment in Berlin
costs around five times less than in
London and up to three times less than
in Paris for an equivalent location and
quality of property.
The real estate market in Berlin has
seen double-digit price growth (10.1 per
cent in 2015, 9.6 per cent in 2016 and
12.7 per cent in 2017), supported by high
residential housing demand.
Berlin has traditionally been a city
where renting rather than owning has
been the norm, but that’s starting to change
– especially as foreign investors have seen

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the potential in a lively, cosmopolitan
city. Since property ownership in Berlin is
starting from such a low level, most market
watchers predict that the city still has
much to offer investors.

SHOW ME THE MONEY
So who’s doing the buying in Europe? Is
it Russian oligarchs getting money out of
the country? While there’s no doubt there’s
interest from these quarters, Bailey says the
biggest demand is from Asia, specifically
China. He explains that Chinese investors
are looking for good income returns from
European capitals and major cities that
have a track record of good yields.
Harris agrees that Asia is a key driver.
“Buyers from Asia have also taken
advantage of sterling’s depreciation
following the Brexit vote. The proportion
of sales to Asian buyers in prime central
London has risen from nine per cent in
the first half of 2016 to 16 per cent in the
second half of 2017. However, the interest
from Asian investors doesn’t extend to
southern Europe, where most money into
property there still comes from northern
European investors.
This point is echoed by Miguel Girbes,
Director at Finca Cortesín, a development
near Marbella in Spain targeting the ultrahigh-net-wealth market. “We have clients
from Spain, Belgium, Germany, Poland,
Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic,
Holland and, obviously, the UK,” he says.
Girbes points out that, in the main,
investors are buying for personal use,
though the opportunity to rent out is
available. Finca Cortesín is at the top-end
of Spanish property development, with
prices starting at €3.7 million and rising
to €7.5 million-plus.
He explains that the high-end of the
Spanish property market is more robust
than mid-to-lower price developments.
Finca Cortesín currently has 32 villas
under construction and has already sold
15 units off plan.
Investors in developments like this
demand high spec. Architects are handpicked from across the world to ensure that
villas are distinctive rather than uniform in
design. Sea views, top-level security, access
to hotels with Michelin-star restaurants
usually figure in most ‘must-have’ lists.
Finca Cortesín has the added advantage
of having a nationally ranked top four golf
course located within the hotel and villa
estate. Girbes is confident the top-end of
the Spanish property market will remain
strong so long as locations tick the right
boxes and the developments continue to
provide a feeling of exclusivity.

BUILDING THE FUTURE
Without the benefit of a crystal ball, and
given the level of geopolitical uncertainty
right now, predicting long-term property

Most expensive
real estate in
the world
Given its reputation over
the years as the location for
the super-rich, it probably
comes as no surprise that
Monaco heads the list of
most expensive cities to
buy property. Your money
doesn’t stretch very far in the
principality. Here are the 10
most expensive places, and
how many square metres
of property you’ll get for
$1 million.

trends isn’t straightforward. However,
Bailey believes the residential property
market will remain stable over the next
five to 10 years, although we’re unlikely
to see strong price growth.
“For those buying property as an
investment and wanting to outperform
average returns, location comes in to focus
much more. Not just central city locations,
but property close to main business zones
and improved infrastructure – for instance,
Crossrail in London,” he says.
Joel Hernandez agrees that the property
market will continue to soften, but thinks
that post-Brexit there will be a pick-up.
“European foreign investors remain wary
as things stand as there are too many
variables with regards to Brexit,” he says.
“When there’s a clearer picture post-2019,
interest is likely to increase.”
All of this said, if you’ve got the money
and you want to live in some of the world’s
busiest and most vibrant cities, there’s
plenty of choice and little to stop you. n
DAVID BURROWS is a freelance writer

may/june 2018 67

Wealth

The stuff of

dreams
From Henry Fordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s utopian
rainforest city to Elon Muskâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
Falcon Heavy rocket, history is
littered with dream projects of
the ultra-wealthy, but are they
actually more than just vanity?

Words:
David Craik

68 may/june 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

Wealth

race, David Bowie’s Space Oddity is sure
to be a hit with little green men or women
in some far-flung galaxy. No doubt they’ll
be clicking their little fingers as the Tesla
electric sports car blasting out the song
continues its journey through space.
Those grooving aliens will have
billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to
thank after the PayPal co-founder’s Falcon
Heavy rocket, under the auspices of his
Space X company, delivered the Tesla
payload into space in February.
The event marked a significant step
forward in Musk’s aim to send human
beings to Mars by 2024, and to do so with
reusable rockets, as the Falcon Heavy’s
boosters descended back to the Cape
Canaveral launch site in one piece.
Musk, who pocketed $180 million when
he sold PayPal in 2006, isn’t just spending
cash on spaceships. He’s also investing in
those Tesla electric cars and energy storage
products such as the solar-powered home
battery, Powerwall.
The human body is also in his sights.
A venture called Neuralink aims to create
devices placed inside the human brain to
help improve memory and interface with
artificial intelligence software.

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While Musk’s escapades may seem a
little ‘out there’, he’s not alone in pursuing
such ambitious projects. Other mega-rich
entrepreneurs are also filling their heads
with dreams.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth
$112bn according to Forbes, is pumping
$1bn a year into his Blue Origin project,
which will also use reusable rocket
technology to send tourists and satellites
into space.
Larry Page, co-founder of Google,
is another fixated with the galaxies. His
Planetary Resources firm is aiming to
mine near-Earth asteroids for minerals
and water to ‘sustain human life and
as propellant for spacecraft’.
Peter Thiel, another PayPal co-founder,
has his own plans for water. He’s the
co-founder of the Seasteading Institute,
which is looking to create a series of
floating cities in French Polynesia, with
offices, schools and hotels on board. Its
aims have evolved from the creation of
a libertarian utopia to helping the human
race cope with rising sea levels as a result
of climate change.
But why bother with human survival
when, like Russian media mogul Dmitry
Itskov, you can live forever as an avatar?
He’s funding the 2045 Initiative, whose
end goal is to transfer the mind and
thoughts of a human being after death
into an avatar with an artificial brain.
It may be tempting to think that all of

the above projects are the fevered thinking
of men who have fortunes so vast that they
don’t know how to spend them and are
living out childhood fantasies of Star Trek
and Buck Rogers. But tycoons spending
their fortunes on outlandish or innovative
personal projects aren’t just confined to the
21st century – you can find echoes of
present projects in the past.

BACK TO THE FUTURE
Car manufacturing legend Henry Ford
tried to create Fordlandia – a utopian city
in the Amazonian forests of Brazil – back
in the 1920s. As well as a source of cheap
rubber, Ford wanted to build the city on
his values, investing in health and schools,
communal dances, a strict diet, no alcohol
and plenty of gardening. Ford invested
$20 million in the site, but it was eventually
sold back, at a loss, to the Brazilian
government after World War Two.
In the world of pioneering transport,
Howard Hughes, the US businessman,
engineer and film producer, is widely
remembered for designing the Spruce
Goose in the 1940s. The highly ambitious
flying boat was 210 feet long, weighed
800 tonnes and was made entirely out
of wood. It only flew once.
In the medical field, entrepreneur John
D Rockefeller invested in the Rockefeller
Institute, the first biomedical research
centre in the US, after his grandson died
of scarlet fever in 1901. There were also
the first stirrings of the importance of
renewable and solar energy, as 19th century
Tyneside industrialist William Armstrong,
who made money out of armaments, also
invested in generating the world’s first
hydro-electric power.
Armstrong also predicted in 1863 that
‘England will cease to be a coal-producing
country... within 200 years’.
We can appreciate the benefits of the
work done by Armstrong and Rockefeller,
and there’s a strong likelihood that similar
gains for the human race will be made in
science and health by the current

may/june 2018 69

▼

AS AN INTRODUCTION to the human

Wealth
generation of
mega-rich entrepreneurs. David Lambotte,
Client Director, Trust Services, at Estera,
says he’s an ardent follower of Musk and
insists that what might sound like fun,
fanciful schemes are much more complex.
“Musk realises there has to be an
economic supporting function to drive his
ultimately philanthropic projects,” he says.
“He gets our buy-in because his ideas, such
as colonising Mars, interfacing mind and
machine at Neuralink, or developing
electric cars, are ultimately commercially
viable ideas. He’s secured huge launch
contracts from NASA and the US
government at SpaceX; Tesla now has a
market capitalisation beyond that of Ford;
and Neuralink is early stage but has the
potential to change what humans are.
All of these projects, which sound farfetched, are profitable ventures.”
But there are huge risks in these projects,
as well as potential benefits.
Musk recently told the South-By-SouthWest conference that both SpaceX and
Tesla almost went bust a decade ago. Of
the $180 million he made when PayPal was
sold, he put half into the companies. But
after research and test failures, he was soon
down to his last $40 million. “SpaceX is
alive by the skin of its teeth, and so is Tesla.
If things had just gone a little differently,
both companies would be dead,” he said.

REALITY CHECK
So, what lessons, if any, can be taken by
HNWIs or entrepreneurs looking to invest
in personal projects? As a trustee, when
faced with a beneficiary seeking funds for
an entrepreneurial endeavour – perhaps not
a rocket or floating city, but still requiring
significant capital – Lambotte takes the
professional approach.
“We have a duty of care to the
beneficiaries of the trust fund, based on all
their needs, and to follow the expression

there’s a likelihood
that gains for the
human race will be
made in science and
health by these megarich entrepreneurs

of wishes we have from the settlor,” he
says. “We ultimately apply ‘prudent man’
standards. Is it an intelligent investment?
Do they have a solid business plan and
realistic forecasts? Are they going about
this the right way? It isn’t risk avoidance,
more a case of risk management.”
When it comes to exotic hobbies or
interests, be it rebuilding steam trains or
collecting art, it’s often preferential for a
settlor, if alive, to keep that portion of his
or her wealth outside a trust.
“The trust fund is ultimately the safety

net, the rainy-day fund, intended to last for
some time,” says Lambotte. “Entrepreneurs
are best to keep their ‘play money’ outside
of the structure and get some sound advice
to ensure they don’t fritter it away.”
Chase de Vere Head of Communications
Patrick Connolly says hobbies can take the
form of traditional alternative investments,
such as art, coins, classic cars or wine, but
care should be taken in less familiar
territory. “You get investments that are
expensive, unregulated and illiquid, with
potentially volatile performance and that
produces no income. This isn’t exactly
attractive to most investors,” he says.
Nevertheless, you may be inspired to
follow the likes of Musk, Bezos, Rockefeller
and Armstrong and invest your hard-earned
cash in projects that can help empower the
human race. But if you’re going to go after
your dream project, with all its associated
risks, you might want to take Bowie’s
advice and ‘take your protein pills and
put your helmet on’. n
DAVID CRAIK is a freelance finance writer

Rex features

WHEN DREAMS DIE

70 may/june 2018

Australian tycoon Clive Palmer became a billionaire through real estate and
minerals. He’s perhaps most well known in his home country for buying the
exclusive five-star Hyatt Regency Coolum resort in Queensland in 2011, which
included a professional-level golf course.
But why not add to the luxurious atmosphere by creating a real-life Jurassic
Park on the site, featuring more than 100 robotic dinosaurs?
Well, Palmer thought it was a good idea. But tragedy struck when star exhibit
Jeff – a 20-metre Tyrannosaurus Rex – burned to the ground in an electric fire in
2015. The park, called Palmersaurus, has now closed and Palmer is reportedly
holding a $67 million debt from the Coolum site.
Palmer also announced in 2012 that he was going to build Titanic II – an
exact replica of the White Star Line’s unsinkable ship, which sank in the Atlantic
in 1912. It would have similar features, such as an Edwardian gym, and was
scheduled to set sail in 2016… then 2018…
Back in 2012, aged 58, Palmer said: “Most people of my age and means either
want to retire or build a boat. I’m going to build a boat.”
There’s been no sign of Titanic II since.

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Xxxxx

channel islands
and the city
a brand new magazine for 2018

arriving in the city in June 2018
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BUSINESSLIFE

may/june 2018 71

Reaching the
minds other
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BUSINESS LIFE

Technology

All seeing

all knowing
Words:
Andrew Strange

ONCE THE STUFF of science fiction, biometrics that
identify people by their physical characteristics or the
way they behave are becoming commonplace. A KFC
restaurant in China, for example, is already appealing to
young customers by using a facial recognition system
that allows them to pay for their chicken with a smile.

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These days, technology can recognise us by looking
at everything from our facial features, fingerprints,
iris and vein patterns, to the unique way in which we
walk, sign our names or use our keyboards.
In 2016, NEC Corporation announced that it had
developed a biometric that could identify people by the

may/june 2018 73

â&#x2013;ź

Biometrics are increasingly being used to
identify individuals in all manner of ways,
but are we starting to cross a privacy line?

Technology

resonation of sound determined by the shape
of human ear cavities.
The reality is that biometrics are already part
of everyday life, thanks largely to their adoption
in mobile phones – the iPhone X is accessed using
facial recognition, with the fingerprint recognition
of previous iterations all rather ordinary now.
Not only does biometric information in our
passports allow us to pass through borders more
quickly, but banks are increasingly using such
technology to protect our accounts and transactions.
TSB uses an iris scanning system, Coutts has installed
voice recognition, while Banco Bradesco in Brazil
claims to have reduced ATM fraud to almost nil by
adding palm vein scanners to 35,000 machines.
In the motor industry, Honda, BMW and Volvo
are among a number of manufacturers that have
unveiled biometric security that requires the driver’s
fingerprint to open and start the car.
And in sport, Ferencvárosi Soccer Club in Budapest
uses palm vein scanning to identify banned fans and
to ensure that each visitor can only enter their
designated section, thereby keeping rival fans apart.
The technology could soon be used to make travel
in major cities easier. Graham Fletcher, Manager
of Cubic Transportation Systems’ London research
centre, explains that biometrics could pinpoint where
a passenger leaves a train so that they’re charged the
right amount, or track people who jump a barrier and
identify regular offenders.
Dr Richard Guest, a lecturer in biometric
engineering at the University of Kent, heads the

it’s already possible
to buy the fingerprints
of well-known people
on the dark web –
waiters can easily
collect them from
wine glasses to sell

74 may/june 2018

EU’s AMBER project, which is looking at the use of
biometrics on mobile devices. He explains that there
was a major focus on biometric research after the
9/11 attacks in the US, as countries sought ways to
improve security.
“But it wasn’t until four or five years ago that
mobile device companies started putting biometric
sensors and systems on their devices,” he says. “That
represented a fundamental shift in terms of the use of
biometrics. When people such as Apple and Samsung
started putting biometric systems onto their phones, it
was the largest roll-out that had been seen.”

DATA PROTECTION
One area of research focuses on continuous
authentication, by using phones to monitor people on
an ongoing basis. It would involve not just biometric
sensors but location, app usage and even the way you
swipe the phone, so that you’d never have to use a
password or a fingerprint when using the device. But
this could involve constant monitoring by companies
such as Google or Apple, raising privacy questions.
Indeed, while the potential for biometrics to make
our lives easier is undeniable, it presents all sorts of
privacy and security risks. When a password is stolen,
it can simply be changed, but the same isn’t true of
your fingerprint or face.
Ricky Magalhaes, Managed Security Services
Director at Logicalis, says it’s already possible to buy
the fingerprints of well-known people on the dark
web because waiters, for example, can easily collect
them from wine glasses to sell.
“You can steal fingerprints, and the thing about
biometrics is that once they’re stolen, you can’t
change your fingerprint,” says Magalhaes. “So, it’s not
like a passport that you can change once it’s stolen.
Biometrics need to be properly protected, because once
they get compromised it can cause a huge issue.”
He believes the advantages of biometrics outweigh
the risks. But systems are emerging that do everything
from confirming the identity of dementia patients
before drugs are administered, to recording and
transcribing meetings, which means privacy and data
security have become critical issues.
Multiple biometrics and security measures can
be used to identify people and guard against theft
and the misuse of biometric information – and the
increasing use of machine learning and artificial
intelligence is also helping. Artificial intelligence
is smart enough to question suspicious biometrics,
so if a facial reading is inconclusive, then fingerprints
or voice patterns can be checked.

REGULATORY RESPONSE
Biometrics and other advances in technology have
posed a challenge for regulators, because existing
regulation has begun to fall behind the pace of change.
On 25 May, however, we will see one of the biggest
shake-ups for years, when the European Union’s
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
comes into force.
The law covers biometrics for the first time,
and companies that fail to comply with strict data
processing rules face big fines of up to €20 million
or four per cent of global turnover. New laws will

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Technology

come into force on the same day in both Jersey and
Guernsey with the intention of strengthening data
protection on the islands.
Paul Vane, Acting Information Commissioner for
the States of Jersey, explains: “While the current
data protection regime we have in place in Jersey
and Guernsey would broadly cover this kind of
information, this technology didn’t really exist when
those laws came into force. Technology has moved
on rapidly and the law has been stretched to its limits
to apply the same principles to emerging technologies.
“GDPR, which has also triggered the revision
of Jersey and Guernsey laws, actually specifically
mentions biometric data as part of its definitions of
special category data.”
Under the Jersey Data Protection Law 2018,
companies can be fined up to £10 million for failing
to protect data properly. However, Vane says the
focus will be on working with companies to help
comply, and only those that ignore advice or fail
to put a proper action plan in place to ensure they
comply with the regulation are likely to face fines.
“No legal mechanism wants to stand in the way
of innovation and the data protection law is no
different in that,” he says. “There are lots of benefits
to using biometrics as a secure method of identity
authentication or reducing the chance of hacking
by using multi-factor identification techniques.
It’s a research and analytical tool that leads to
brilliant creativity and innovative technologies but
ultimately, you’ve got to have a lawful basis to
process that kind of information.”
Now that biometrics have become an everyday
method of identification, there’s no escaping the
fact that they’re likely to become more prevalent.
And as criminals continue to grow in sophistication,
the public is going to need to be as protected as
possible from identity theft. n
ANDREW STRANGE is a freelance writer

www.blglobal.co.uk

What the future holds
The future of biometrics is unpredictable,
but we could see these technologies
within the next couple of years:
Shape
A company in the US has developed a
system that can identify what you’re
carrying – even if it’s in your pocket –
by your shape. It does this by taking
hundreds of pictures and is able to
identify an object, such as a gun. This
has obvious relevance within highsecurity buildings and as a system
to protect schools in the US from
marauding gunmen.
Emotion
Systems are also being developed to
identify emotions by monitoring body
language. If you’re happy, you tend to
smile, but when you’re unhappy your
body changes in a variety of measurable
ways. Using this technology, you could
reassure someone who was frightened or
bar entry to someone who was angry. If
you were videoconferencing with a client,
it could warn you if they were unhappy,
so that you could change tack.
Body heat
While we’re used to automatic doors,
we could soon see doors that open
automatically – but only for certain
people. This is likely to be achieved
by sensors behind walls that identify
individuals by mapping their unique
heat signatures.

may/june 2018 75

THE AGENDA
The Agenda is compiled by Businesslife Fashion and Lifestyle
Editor, Thom O’Dwyer, with additional material by Danny Cobbs

1

1. BEAUTY PERSONIFIED
The aesthetic of Ralph & Russo – heir to the grand British tradition of
Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell – is the embodiment of haute
couture style. The purity and refinement of its couture and ready-towear lines is the height of sophistication. The Spring/Summer 2018
Couture Collection was nothing short of magical, a divine smorgasbord
of styles and design references – from strict 1940s cocktail dresses to
Cinderella ballgowns and traditional Chinese silhouettes.
Pictured right, a glorious strapless silk organza ballgown features
ribbon embroidery and 3D orientalist flowers, embellished with
metallic silver crystals. In total contrast, the ultra-chic silk tulle and
woven French tweed off-the-shoulder cocktail dress and jacket, above,
are embellished with white opals and crystals.
This is what haute couture is all about – old school glamour,
Hollywood glitz and moneyed elegance. And to add to its devotees
– Beyoncé, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and a bevy of private
clients – Meghan Markle wore a Ralph & Russo dress for her official
engagement photo alongside Prince Harry. Fashion fame big time!
£POA, www.ralphandrusso.com

2. DESIGNER EDGE
Lust for Life – an intriguing exhibition recently held at London’s
renowned Carpenters Workshop Gallery – showcased work by
controversial Dutch sculptor, designer, visionary and entrepreneur
Joep van Lieshout. Treading the blurry line between art and design
since the early 1980s, he opened his studio Atelier Van Lieshout
in 1995. He’s created everything from sexually suggestive
sculptures – his fibreglass public sculpture was rejected by the
Louvre last autumn for being obscene – to über-utilitarian office
chairs. For three decades, van Lieshout’s work has broken the
boundaries of art, design and architecture.
In the artist’s latest show, he used his Lust for Life Lamps to
express his fascination with man and machine, environment and

2

consumption, society and systems, the urge to destroy and renew, and
the interplay between the dystopian and utopian. Their hard-edged
feel is redolent of the Brutalist architectural style of the 1950s. Pictured
here are two prime examples of the limited-edition Lust for Life Lamps
– the Minimal Kiss and the Statistocrat. Both powerful ‘sculptures’ in
their own right, yet practical additions to urban living and lighting.
£POA, www.carpentersworkshopgallery.com;
www.ateliervanlieshout.com

3. LESS IS MORE
Nothing feels better than buying a new handbag to complete your superstylish springtime look. It’s just the boost a hard-working career girl needs.
Whether you go for a haute-hobo fringed number, a still-in-fashion oversized
bucket bag, or a haute-silly transparent bag (open invitation to pickpockets),
as seen on the Chanel, Fendi and Valentino catwalks, a new handbag is just
what the style doctor ordered. Our vote for the best bag of the season goes to
Ralph & Russo. Channelling contemporary minimalism and hard-edged lines,
this starkly simple geometric handbag in silver alligator with silver hardware
trims is the perfect accessory to perk up any sophisticated ensemble.
Gorgeously decadent and so gorgeously enviable.
£19,500, www.ralphandrusso.com

4

78 may/june 2018

3

4. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
Born into Polish nobility, Stone Paris founder Marie Poniatowski designs delicate, filigree pieces
of jewellery that are visions of elegance and femininity. Since opening her Paris shop in 2004,
Stone Paris has established a reputation for super-light, mesmerisingly beautiful jewellery. The
designer describes her creative vision as “vintage-inspired, feminine, delicate, timeless and rock!”
and her customers include Michelle Pfeiffer, Demi Moore and Juliette Binoche. Pictured here is
the exquisite Passion Necklace, where tiny white diamonds play a lustrous contrast against the
blackened white gold base, and the 18-carat rose gold pendant finishes it off impeccably. Wear
the necklace the Parisian way, with skinny jeans and a white T-shirt. Toujours chic, n’est-ce pas?
£6,481, www.mytheresa.com

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THE
AGENDA

5. OBJECT OF DESIRE
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of London-based
Object Studio it’s very much in the eye of the creator. Royal College of Art
graduate Thomas Vaughan brought together four furniture designer/makers
to create bespoke furniture and interior commissions for private and
commercial spaces. All work is designed and created in-house. Exploring new
materials, processes and finishes, along with advanced manufacturing
techniques, their aim is to allow the user to connect with their work in a tactile
way. Pictured, the twisting base of the elegant Nodum desk defies all laws of
woodworking – it’s carved in ‘ebonised’ ash from 43 sections with traditional
joints. Pushing the boundaries of aesthetics, technology and material, this
collective produces fine pieces for the modernist connoisseur.
£POA, www.objectstudio.co.uk

6. CUSTOMISED LUXURY
Footwear brand SWEAR was founded 22 years ago by José Neves – also founder of online
fashion retailer Farfetch – as a unisex, seasonless sneaker label. Last year, he repositioned
the label and the footwear brand was relaunched as fashion’s first fully customisable
sneaker label for the next generation of luxury consumers. Customise 360 allows
customers to design their own sneaker with state-of-the-art 3D modelling technology,
before they’re meticulously handmade and dispatched within four to six
weeks. Your custom-made sneakers can be made in nappa, suede, hairy
calf, python, ostrich or crocodile leathers. A contemporary take on the
classic lace-up sneaker, the Vyner model, pictured, is customised in
white crocodile leather. With its piping and padded collar, the shoe is
all about comfort. The low-top comes complete with a rounded toe,
flat laces and chunky rubber soles. As Neves himself says: “I really
believe that customisation will be the next revolution in luxury. It’s a
very powerful movement.” Yes, but it’ll cost you!
£3,235, www.farfetch.com

8. ULTIMATE REJUVENATION
More an extraordinary transformative experience than
mere moisturiser, La Prairie Cellular Cream Platinum Rare
is the height of self-indulgent luxury. From the first touch,
this is a leavening immersion.
Tracing its proud heritage to the renowned Clinique La
Prairie in Montreux, Switzerland, for four decades this exclusive beauty
company has gone to the ends of the earth
– literally – to uncover the most beneficial
ingredients for this cream. Colloidal
platinum helps to recharge the skin’s
balance, increasing its absorption of
revitalising ingredients. Climate-activated
hydration adjusts to changing humidity
levels and the skin’s temperature, releasing
moisture as needed by the skin.
This rejuvenating cream preserves skin
texture and tone, restoring a radiant glow.
There’s nothing in the galaxy like it. The
cream is the pinnacle of cosmetic
art, science and sheer luxury.
Costly? Yes. But you’re worth it.
£894/20ml, www.selfridges.com

➨

may/june 2018 79

9

THE
AGENDA

9.DIVINE SCENT
Founded in 2004 by the renowned fragrance specialist and
historian Roja Dove, Roja Perfums has become a byword for
exotic, luxury fragrances for men and women.
For years, the ultra-special scent Roja Haute Luxe was the
perfumer’s own private secret. As Dove explains: “I made this
creation using all the materials I love the most. Everything
about this fragrance is very personal, including its presentation.
Having been asked constantly ‘What fragrance do you wear?’,
usually followed by ‘Can I buy it?’, I decided to make a small
quantify every year.”
The bottle itself comes lavishly adorned with a Swarovoski
crystal cap and features 24-carat gold leaf inside the opulent
bottle. This is a rich, resinous, modern ‘chyré scent’, with citrus
high notes and a warm mossy, woody base, and can be worn
by men and women. It’s a truly head-turning, jaw-dropping
scent. A fragrance of rarity, refined perfection and unrivalled
beauty, this scent is bound to mesmerise even the most jaded
fragrance lover, whatever the gender.
£2,500/100ml, www.selfridges.com

10

10. BLAZING A TRAIL
Since Alessandro Michele was appointed Creative Director in 2015, his
eclectic and flamboyant aesthetic has made Gucci the most in-demand
luxury brand in fashion. He was also largely responsible for the rebirth of
the famous double G logo after the anonymous, logo-less, minimalist
approach dominated fashion in the nineties and noughties.
Paying homage to Gucci’s roots in recent collections, the designer has
brought the established symbol of Gucci’s heritage back to the fashion
forefront. And the customers love it. The attitude now is: if you’ve got it,
flaunt it. And guys, what better way to show off your fashion nous than
by sporting this in-yer-face, cooler-than-cool cotton jersey, two-button
blazer from the 2018 Cruise Collection? The jacket has two roomy patch
pockets, a single back vent, formal but comfy fit, half canvas
construction, and is silk lined. Statement made. The double G motif
of Gucci’s 1980s heyday is back. And bigger and bolder than ever.
£1,640, www.farfetch.com

11. HOT FOOTING IT
LA local Dominic Chambrone – the brains behind über-trendy, customised
footwear brand The Shoe Surgeon – has lent online fashion
retailer Farfetch his super-stylish, street-cred skills as part of a
limited edition collaboration. Offering deconstructed and
reimagined urban sneakers, the Y3 Mira sneaker, pictured,
is for the fashion-forward lady. With a definite rock chick
vibe, the shoe style blends the brand’s contemporary
aesthetic with Chambrone’s daring design approach.
Made from the finest leather and nubuck, these totally
on-trend sneakers are secured by white laces that
weave through rope-style loops.
With contrasting dayglo orange lining, the
branded Shoe Surgeon logo is boldly printed in gold
on the tongue. Finished off with chunky black and
white rubber soles, the Y3 branding is flashily
emblazoned on the heel. These sneakers are a one-off
design, and all proceeds from the sale will go to the
North Bay Fire Relief charity, aiding victims of the
devastating fire disaster that hit Northern California.
What you might call a worthy collaboration.
£2,010, www.farfetch.com

80 may/june 2018

11
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THE
AGENDA

12
12. A CLASSIC REBORN
After more than 10 years in production, and a
few tweaks along the way, the car that singlehandedly revived Bentley’s fortunes has had
an overhaul. Yet despite the Continental GT’s
obvious success and longevity, its driving
dynamics were always questionable. This new
model, however, which goes on sale later this
year, addresses those issues, and then some,
writes Danny Cobbs.
Its underpinnings come from the Porsche
Panamera, re-engineered to deliver handling
characteristics unique to this GT. It’s the same
story for its new dual-clutch, eight-speed
gearbox. Add a weight saving of 76kg into the
equation, and this new Bentley becomes so
much sharper to drive than its predecessor.
Power still comes from a six-litre twin-turbo
W12 (a V8 will follow after a hybrid), but the
familiar capacity belies the fact that the unit is
all-new, with more muscle on offer as well.

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There’s now 626bhp and
664lb ft of torque, which
translates into 3.7 seconds
to 62mph and a top speed
of 207mph.
Where the GT’s elegant new
metalwork may seem a little
muted against other cars in the
same price bracket, the cabin is subtly
flamboyant and drips in bespoke luxury
handcrafted to the highest levels.
Leather acts as the backdrop for the latest
onboard technology and there’s enough
room in the back seats to comfortably
accommodate two average-sized adults.
But here’s the thing – even at full pelt,
when the GT is propelling itself to what can
feel like Warp Factor 1, it remains eerily quiet
on the inside.
This GT now offers something for everyone.

In an instant, it transforms from a practical
2+2 long-distance cruiser – with a boot large
enough to swallow a set of golf clubs – into a
howling, snarling, driver-focused track car.
On reflection, the asking price seems like
a beguiling proposition for a car this
accomplished.
From £156,000, www.bentleymotors.com

may/june 2018 81

➨

13
15
82 may/june 2018

13. DIFFERENT BRAND OF DANDY
Having built his eponymous luxury label from
scratch in just four years, Joshua Kane – the
dandiest tailor on the London fashion scene – has
amassed a serious cult following of both genders. He
cut his tailoring teeth working in Brooks Brothers’
New York City design studio, then moved on to work
with both Paul Smith and Burberry’s ex-Design
Director Christopher Bailey as senior designer.
The Albert suit, pictured, is a perfect example of
the designer’s distinctive look. Impeccably tailored
from specially woven herringbone pattern Donegal
tweed, the jaunty, retro, heritage look from the
Journey catwalk collection was inspired by 1920s
London. The jacket features wide peak lapels and
side vents, closing with a single blackhorn button
with the silver crest logo.
In addition to the made-to-order ready-to-wear
collections on offer, Joshua Kane also offers a fully
bespoke service. The latter process traditionally
takes eight weeks, with a final fitting required to
ensure perfection of fit and finish. The perfect suit for
the well-groomed new age Beau Brummell.
£1,650 suit; £470 waistcoat; £260 shirt;
£150 cap; £120 tie; £120 scarf,
www.joshuakanestore.com

15. DENIM DELUXE
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana really let rip at their
SS18 catwalk show. Always a crowd pleaser, this season was
a riot of mad, playful prints, wacky motifs, traditional Sicilian
Majolica folkloric prints, and more blossoms and flowers
than you’re likely to find at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
You can always count on Dolce & Gabbana to take an
upmarket, designer approach to revamping and
reinterpreting humble denim jeans. The mid-rise
distressed jeans, pictured here, come in a comfortable
bootleg cut and have been lavishly decorated all over and
elaborately embroidered with hearts and an entire flower
shop of different floral prints, as well as dripping graffiti
slogans and the house’s adopted spotted leopard logo
motif. True works of art, these denims.
£1,500, www.mytheresa.com

16. SOCK IT TO ME
The wildly popular Italian fashion label Etro started life in 1968
as a textile design company, becoming famous for its exotic,
swirling paisley jacquard fabrics. Moving into the luxury leather
goods market in 1984, it expanded even further, staging its first
fashion show at Milan Fashion Week in 1996.
Etro Man exemplifies the label’s blend of fine tailoring and
exuberant design. More restrained clothing styles and sleek,
contemporary silhouettes are offset by a wild explosion of
flamboyant patterns and intense colours for accessories and
shirtings. Pictured here is an eye-catching pair of flashy paisley
printed pure cotton socks. Just the thing to jazz up the old navy
blue or charcoal city suit during workday hours.
£134, www.farfetch.com

14
14. PLAY MISTY FOR ME
Perfume on your pulse points?
The new way to wear your fragrance,
ladies, is by spraying your hair
with hair mist. There are practical
reasons for adopting this new way
of wearing perfume – hair holds
fragrance more effectively than skin
because it’s more porous, so it
evaporates more slowly.
For sheer luxury and pure selfindulgence, The Night Hair Mist by
Frédéric Malle ticks all the right
boxes. Grandson of the legendary
Serge Heftler Louiche, founder of
Christian Dior Perfums, Malle has
perfumery in his DNA.
Created in collaboration with
celebrated perfumer Dominique
Ropion, The Night is a potent,
uncomplicated composition of
oud, the dark-scented resin from
the Southeast Asian agar tree – often
referred to as Liquid Gold because
of its rarity – mixed with Turkish
rose and amber boosting the
fragrance’s longevity.
A subtly sexy scent exuding plain
unadulterated extravagance.
£530/50ml, www.selfridges.com

16

17

THE
AGENDA

17. COOL AS CAN BE
The iconic 50s-style FAB28 fridge by Smeg – the Italian
manufacturer of upmarket domestic appliances – has been
used on many occasions as a canvas for creativity and artistic
expression. But none quite like the fantastical fridge pictured here.
Joining forces with hip design duo Dolce & Gabbana has resulted
in what can only be described as a spectacularly dramatic, mindblowing kitchen appliance.
Sharing a deep passion for Italy and tradition, the designers
found inspiration for the project in Sicilian folk iconography. Each
refrigerator features quintessential scenes from Italy’s history and
historical myths. The themes developed for each are embellished
with classic floral motifs. Fine artists steeped in the Sicilian folkloric
traction were commissioned to produce the vibrantly coloured
panels. “The fridges really are the perfect collector’s piece,”
Stefano Gabbana told Vogue when the fridge was launched at
the prestigious World Furniture Exhibition in Milan.
As Picasso once said: “Art washes away from the soul the dust
of everyday life.” In this case, it’s kitchen drudgery.
£POA, www.smeguk.com

www.blglobal.co.uk

18

18. DRINK PINK
For those who prefer a deep and full-bodied
rosé champagne, Dom Pérignon 2002 should
not be missed. This rosé is assertive and
remarkably tactile, with a creamy intensity.
The fullness stretches out and sustains a
vibrant, crystalline note, and possesses a
symphony of lilting and luminous
aromas. This complexity becomes
deeper in the finish, with scents of
smoke and black cherry.
The 2002 vintage is a tribute to
pinot noir – a notoriously difficult
grape to work with. This rosé,
however, brings its expression to the
fore. A 10-year maturation period
has resulted in a champagne of
astonishing and bold richness.
The six-litre Methuselah, pictured,
comes from the cellars of Clos19,
which is your passport to vintage
champagnes, fine wine and stellar
spirits from the top distilleries.
£8,500, www.clos19.com

19. DRY ICE
To chill your Dom Pérignon 2002 rosé champagne, why not
invest in the latest luxury must-have – an iceless ice bucket by
the techno and thermodynamics master brand Kaelo. Be it
vintage champagne or a normal bottle of plonk, loading up an
ice bucket or handling dripping wet bottles isn’t just a nuisance,
it’s also a messy bore. This miracle cooling vessel, however, not
only does the job chillingly well, but design-wise it’s also rather
attractive to look at, and would blend in
nicely with most urban living interiors.
One touch activates Kaelo’s patented
cooling system to readily chill down
the inner chamber and provide
the perfect environment to
reliably maintain a chilled
bottle’s temperature.
You’d have to have the
brain of a rocket scientist
(or the company’s founder)
to understand how this
super-cool gizmo operates,
but it works beautifully.
Promise. And it uses less
energy than a 60W bulb.
£1,395, www.kaelo.co.uk

19

may/june 2018 83

Directory
To advertise in the directory in print or online contact Carl Methven on
+ 44 (0)1534 615886 or carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk

Great learning boosts performance
It’s a simple fact of business that people
who know how to use their IT systems
properly are more productive and happier at
work.
At ALX Training, it is our mission to ensure
that every person we work with can use their
essential applications properly, saving time,
smoothing processes and creating a more
productive workplace.

Appleby is one of the world’s largest
providers of offshore legal advice and
services. Uniquely positioned in the key
offshore jurisdictions of Bermuda, BVI, the
Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man,
Jersey, Mauritius and the Seychelles, as well
as the international financial centres of
London, Hong Kong and Shanghai. We are
also the only firm to have offices in all three
British Crown Dependencies.
Our services include:

Our trainers are renowned for their product
knowledge, and their friendly and energetic
attitudes to training help them get the best
from every person they teach.

l Corporate
l Dispute Resolution
l Private Client & Trusts
l Property

Learning starts at induction
We are well-known for our range of Microsoft
Office courses which includes Office 365,
Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Project,
SharePoint and Visio but our clients know
we can do much more.

Members of the Jersey and Guernsey offices
regularly advise London City and
international law firms on all legal aspects of
offshore corporate, finance and investment
fund transactions and arrangements in the
Channel Islands.

Not only do we train on well-known
accounting packages such a Xero and
QuickBooks but we create courses on
bespoke in-house systems. We design
unique courses specifically for your
organisation, so that your staff learn
precisely the information they need to work
efficiently and effectively.

For more information visit our website
www.applebyglobal.com

We know there’s no better place for your
new colleagues to start learning than during
their induction programme, so we develop
bespoke induction courses that give your
new starters all the information they need to
hit the ground running. We can even deliver
content online, so training can be ongoing
and continuous.

Ashburton Investments is a new generation
investment manager building on a solid
foundation to provide global investors with
multi asset, specialist emerging market and
equity products. As part of the FirstRand
Group, one of South Africa’s largest financial
services institutions, Ashburton has a strong
footprint in Africa and understands volatile
emerging markets. Ashburton believes that
taking a broad-brush view of emerging
markets is no longer effective and it is
important to make country by country
judgements enabling its specialism in Africa
and India.
For more than 30 years multi asset has been
the cornerstone of the business, with the
product set evolving over time to suit ever
changing market conditions and
understanding clients’ needs to effectively
manage risk and access more sources of
return.
Globally, Ashburton Investments has over
£8.8bn under management as at June 2017
with offices in the Channel Islands, United
Kingdom, South Africa, and the United Arab
Emirates.
For more information please do not
hesitate to get in touch:
Laythamm Malorey
E: laythamm.malorey@ashburton.com
T: +44 (0)1534 512010
www.ashburtoninvestments.com

Carey Olsen is a leading offshore law firm
advising on British Virgin Islands, Cayman
Islands, Guernsey and Jersey law across a
global network of eight international offices.
We are a full service firm working across
banking and finance, corporate and M&A,
investment funds and private equity, trusts
and private wealth, dispute resolution,
insolvency and property law.
Our clients include global financial
institutions, investment funds, private equity
houses, multi-national corporations, public
organisations, sovereign wealth funds, high
net worth individuals, family offices, directors,
trustees and private clients. We work alongside
all of the major onshore law firms,
accountancy firms and insolvency
practitioners on corporate transactions and
matters involving our jurisdictions.
Our advice is delivered by an approachable
and experienced team of commerciallyminded lawyers, led by 48 partners, who help
our clients achieve their objectives. We have
the expertise and resources to handle the
most complex international transactions
combined with a personal approach to
business.
Contact:
guernsey@careyolsen.com
T +44 (0)1481 727272
jerseyco@careyolsen.com
T +44 (0)1534 888900
www.careyolsen.com

Deloitte LLP
Deloitte LLP offers professional services to the
UK and European market. The company has
the broadest and deepest range of skills of any
business advisory organisation and employs
over 14,400 exceptional people in 28 offices in
the UK and Switzerland.
We provide professional services and advice to
many leading businesses, government
departments and public sector bodies and
publish many influential studies and thought
leadership pieces.
Deloitte LLP employs 160 professionals across
the Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man
offices. It is the UK member firm of Deloitte
Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private
company limited by guarantee, and its global
network of 150 member firms, each of which is
a legally separate and independent entity.
Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and
financial advisory services to public and
private clients spanning multiple industries.
Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and
high-quality service to clients, delivering the
insights they need to address their most
complex business challenges.
For further information please do not
hesitate to contact:
John Clacy, Partner, Guernsey
Email:jclacy@deloitte.co.uk
Phone +44 (0) 1481 724011
Greg Branch, Partner, Jersey
Email: gbranch@deloitte.co.uk
Phone: +44(0)1534 824325
www.deloitte.com

Estera, a leading provider of offshore
fiduciary and administration services.
Established for more than 25 years, our
strong legal heritage and resolute
commitment to the delivery of service
excellence is what sets us apart.
Independent and global, we have over 500
dedicated, professional and highly qualified
employees supporting smart and integrated
fiduciary solutions.
Our comprehensive and diverse service
offering is split across our four core service
lines:
l Corporate
l Trusts
l Funds
l Accounting
Our unique understanding of the
complexities surrounding the world of
fiduciary services inspires us to achieve the
best possible results for our clients. This,
combined with our commercial acumen,
attention to detail and responsiveness,
enables us to meet our clients’ needs.
Richard Prosser
Group Director
richard.prosser@estera.com
+44 1534 844 809
Estera Trust (Jersey) Limited is regulated by
the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

About EY
EY is a global leader in assurance, tax,
transactions and advisory services. The
insights and quality services we deliver help
build trust and confidence in the capital
markets and in economies the world over.
We develop outstanding leaders who team
to deliver on our promises to all of our
stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical
role in building a better working world for our
people, for our clients and for our
communities.
Our strong network has enabled us to build
close working relationships with our
colleagues in EMEIA and across the world.
This allows us to respond quickly to our CI
clients’ needs, drawing upon our industry
experience across all our services lines.
To discuss how we can support your
business, please contact one of our
partners below:
Mike Bane, Partner, Assurance and TAS
E: mbane@uk.ey.com T: 01481 717 435
Andrew Dann, Managing Partner,
Assurance
E: adann@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 655
Richard Le Tissier, Associate Partner,
Assurance
E: rletissier@uk.ey.com T: 01481 717 468
Chris Matthews, Partner, Assurance
E: cmatthews@uk.ey.com
T: 01534 288 610
David Moore, Partner, Assurance and
Advisory
E: dmoore@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 697
Wendy Martin, Partner, Head of Tax CI
E: wmartin1@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 298
David White, Head of Tax, Guernsey
E: dwhite1@uk.ey.com T: 01481 717 445

www.blglobal.co.uk
To advertise in the directory in print or online contact Carl Methven on
+ 44 (0)1534 615886 or carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk

Highvern Trustees is a leading provider of
wealth structuring, governance and
advisory services to an international client
base of high-net-worth individuals, their
families and businesses. It offers senior
industry expertise and client focus,
developing long-term, sustainable client
relationships by working closely with and
getting to know the individual ambitions of
every client with whom it works.
Highvern Fund Administrators provides a
fully tailored suite of bespoke fund services to
investment managers and family offices across
private capital markets including renewables,
private equity, real estate and debt.
Both businesses are built on cutting edge
technology, truly independent ownership
and a team of experts with the shared vision
of responding to client needs in a flexible,
timely and constructive manner.
To discuss how Highvern can help you or
your business achieve your goals please
contact :
Family Office
Naomi Rive, Group Director
+ 44 (0)1534 480601
naomirive@highvern.com
Private Client
Miles Le Cornu, Group Director
+ 44 (0)1534 480603
mileslecornu@highvern.com
Funds
Aidan O’Flanagan, Head of Funds
+ 44 (0)1534 480690
aidanoflanagan@highvern.com
Email: info@highvern.com
www.Highvern.com
Highvern Trustees Limited and Highvern
Fund Administrators Limited are regulated
by the Jersey Financial Services
Commission

www.blglobal.co.uk

KPMG in the Channel Islands is a leading
provider of professional services, including
audit, tax and advisory. With offices in Jersey
and Guernsey, we employ over 260 members
of staff across the two islands.
We work closely with our clients, helping them
to identify and grasp opportunities, and
mitigate risk. KPMG’s global network enables
us to draw on our international resources to
meet our clients’ needs. Our member firms are
located across 152 countries and employ more
than 189,000 people around the world.
With passion and purpose, we work shoulderto-shoulder with our clients, integrating
innovative approaches and deep expertise to
deliver real results.
Jersey
Jason Laity
Chairman
jlaity@kpmg.com
Andrew Quinn
Head of Audit
andrewquinn@kpmg.com
John Riva
C.I. Head of Tax
jriva@kpmg.com
Robert Kirkby
Advisory Partner
rkirkby@kpmg.com
Guernsey
Neale Jehan
Managing Director
njehan@kpmg.com
Tony Mancini
Tax Partner
amancini@kpmg.com
Ashley Paxton
C.I. Head of Advisory
ashleypaxton@kpmg.com

Specialty: Bespoke IT Development &
Business Consultancy
Puritas is an award-winning provider of
intuitive software and business solutions for
the financial services industry.
Specifically designed to meet the increasingly
complex accounting, compliance, and
reporting needs of our clients, all software
features robust audit and control capabilities
which can be easily updated to reflect
changes in the regulatory environment.
Our products include:
l PureFunds - a unitized product platform
specifically designed to support many
different types of asset class and fund
structures and help fund administrators
and portfolio managers better manage
investor activity
l PureClient - an advanced customer due
diligence/client management system
which will maintain and update client
records for any entity or relationship and
provides the necessary transparency and
look-through reporting that is needed to
manage sophisticated structures
l PureManager - a bespoke software
package for fund and investment
managers which provides for effective
control, analysis, reconciliation and
reporting of daily trading activity.
As well as software development, our services
include:
l Systems integration and implementation
l Programme and project management
l Project and business consultancy
To find out more how Puritas can help
your business.
Contact: Mike Feighan - Director
Phone: +44 (0) 1534 874100
Email: mike.feighan@puritas.co.uk

➔

www.kpmg.com/channelislands

may/June 2018 87

Directory

Building trust in society and solving
important problems
We focus on three things at PwC in the
Channel Islands: assurance, tax and advisory
services. But how we use our knowledge and
experience depends on what you want to
achieve. So whichever one of our 390
staff in the Channel Islands you work with (or
225,000 people across the PwC global
network of member firms), they’ll start by
asking the following questions:
Are you looking to build trust? Give your
shareholders more value? Or do you want to
do something completely different with
your strategy?
When we work with you we really listen, to
understand you better. We’ll get to know
you, your business and your goals. Then we’ll
share what we’ve learned to help you get
there. We want to deliver the value that you,
our clients, our people and our communities
are looking for.
Talk to us about your issues and aspirations.
For further information, please contact:
John Roche, Partner, Guernsey
Phone: +44 1481 752040
Email: john.roche@pwc.com
Karl Hairon, Partner, Jersey
Phone: +44 1534 838276
Email: karl.hairon@pwc.com

Viberts is dedicated to providing
outstanding legal advice and customer
service, both in Jersey and internationally.
Our clients range from private individuals to
multinational corporations, local businesses
and public authorities. We are large enough
to offer a full service but small enough that
each client has direct contact with one of our
partners. We always take a pragmatic
approach so that we can deal with matters
as efficiently as possible, but we are also
compassionate and understanding when it
comes to sensitive issues.
We partner with other specialists across the
globe where required to bring you the best
possible advice and representation.
Our range of bespoke legal services
includes:
l Commercial
l Employment
l Family
l Litigation
l Personal
l Property
For expert legal advice, please contact us
today.
E: info@viberts.com
T: +44 (0) 1534 888 666
W: www.viberts.com

Follow us: @PwC_CI
URL: https://www.pwc.com/jg

88 may/June 2018

www.blglobal.co.uk

BLGlobal.co.uk

BL Directory
THE ONLINE DIRECTORY THAT WILL GET YOUR FIRM NOTICED.
With a profile summary on every press release, and a
historical press release archive linked to your directory
entry, BLGlobal.co.uk is the place to be

Tea or coffee?
Coffee. One cup of really decent,
freshly ground bean coffee midmorning. I definitely believe in
quality not quantity on this one.
Favourite song?
Anything by Prince – he’s a legend!
Most amazing place you’ve
visited?
I’ve been lucky enough to have
travelled to many amazing places
around the world. However, my
favourite place has got to be where I
come home to – Jersey. After living
here for nearly 20 years, I’m still in
awe of the beauty of this gorgeous
island. There are so many stunning
places – the waterfall at Plemont is
one of my favourites spots as it’s
where my husband proposed.
Scariest thing that’s happened
to you?
Being pushed out of a plane at
13,000 feet by my husband.
Your best quality?
I have a genuine appreciation and
gratitude for life as I’m acutely aware
that we can’t take it for granted. It’s
the simple things I appreciate most,
so I’m easily pleased!
The worst thing about you?
I can’t seem to tick along at medium
pace and my mind just doesn’t stop.
I need regular cliff-path walks, runs
and meditation to counteract it.
Last meal on death row?
Afternoon tea served in fine bone
china – I love the indulgence and
tradition of it.
Cats or dogs?
Dogs.
Have you ever sung karaoke?
Yes, but I’m tone deaf!

THE LAST TEA

CELEBRITY SPOT

90 may/june 2018

First job you had?
Working in a retirement home,
cleaning, emptying commodes
and other unglamorous tasks.
My daughter was recently offered
a little job clearing the horses’ field
at our friend’s stables – she was
delighted, exclaiming: “We’d both
be doing the same first job, Mummy
– cleaning up poo!”
Worst job you’ve done?
Saturday job in a hairdresser’s –
I was ‘let go’ as I wasn’t any
good at sweeping.

Favourite item of clothing?
My wetsuit, which I’ve had for over
15 years. I’ve worn it all over the
world, from scuba diving with bull
sharks in Fiji to paddle boarding
and coasteering along the beautiful
coast of Jersey. I’m hoping it will
take me on many more adventures.
Sweet or savoury?
Sweet.
Have you ever met anyone
famous?
Amy Winehouse, while holidaying
in St Lucia.
One thing you would ban if you
became Prime Minister?
A bit controversial, but I would ban
schools that segregate children
based on religious beliefs, just as
Sweden recently proposed. I
believe that segregating children
based on any differences can be
unhelpful in creating a society that’s
inclusive and tolerant of diversity.
Best advice you’ve been given?
My grandmother used to give me
lots of wise advice – she’d write
positive quotes on little pieces of
card and hand them to me. Once,
when I was about seven, she wrote
down several positive words to
describe me – words that didn’t
describe my seven-year-old self but
are certainly how I’d describe
myself now. I’m a big believer in
‘you are what you think’.
If your house was on fire and you
could save one item, what would
it be (family excepted)?
I have two – my eight-year-old’s soft
toy bunny and my seven-year-old’s
snuggly blanket, both once pink but
now grey from years of love.
Amy Winehouse image credit: Peter Cruise/Creative Commons

20

➤

Buzzword you hate the most?
Anything that’s not to the point
and authentic.
What do you have for breakfast?
Scrambled eggs, spinach and
avocado if I have the time – if not,
a quick bowl of porridge with
linseeds and honey.
Something about you that
people might be surprised by?
I’m an introvert at heart. Give me a
good book and a quiet space and I
couldn’t be happier.
Helen Gale is a Partner at Deloitte
in Jersey

n

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DEFENDERS
Consider us part of your team.
Your goals are our goals.

To find out how our drive can help your
business to succeed visit collascrill.com
BVI // Cayman // Guernsey // Jersey // London // Singapore